This is a guest blog by Carly Painter, a student at Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College (SMWC) majoring in business administration. She was an intern for Medical Risk Institute in Terre Haute.
You never know what one meeting can lead to.
In October 2013, I was introduced to Michael J. Sacopulos, a medical law attorney practicing in Terre Haute. After meeting him, Michael offered me an opportunity to work as an intern for his company, Medical Risk Institute, to gain experience in the medical field.
Medical Risk Institute, works to inform healthcare providers where liability risks originate and how to reduce those risks. As a student who is planning on obtaining a Masters of Healthcare Administration (MHA), I was instantly attracted to this opportunity and saw it as an experience that would help prepare me for my future career.
I was absolutely right about this.
At my first meeting with Michael, he introduced me to his assistant, Jane Santucci. From the very beginning, both Michael and Jane were committed to making sure that this internship was a learning experience for me. I performed duties like filing and data mining, but I also got to research topics that will be essential to my future career. I learned about breaches, malpractice suits and how easily these can come about when you’re in the healthcare field. I became more familiar with medical terminology and acronyms, which made all my work that much easier.
Through this internship, I learned how to write more effectively and also how to research topics efficiently. Some of my assignments included researching a topic and then creating a summary for Michael to look through. He then wrote an article on the topic and send it to multiple magazines/online resources to be published. By the end of my internship, I assisted in approximately three of his articles that were published in medical resources! This was an exciting accomplishment for me knowing my work was used to inform other healthcare professionals.
I accomplished and learned a lot during this internship; however, I did come across a few challenges. Sometimes I was given a larger work load than I had time to complete in one day, and I would have to wait to finish it. Leaving work undone is one of my pet-peeves, and it was hard for me to walk away from an uncompleted assignment, even though I knew that Jane and Michael understood I had to leave for class. I quickly learned how to manage my time better, and how to research things more efficiently so that I spent less time researching and more time summarizing. Also, I came across some challenging topics of which I had no previous knowledge, but I was able to quickly learn these so that I could complete my tasks.
Through this internship, I gained a working knowledge of topics that I will soon become an expert on through my MHA program. Because of this, I will be more prepared upon entering into this next step of my life. Interning helped expand my professional network. After I am finished working at Medical Risk Institute, I will continue to keep in touch with both Michael and Jane because they are now a part of my network.
This internship confirmed my career goal of becoming a healthcare administrator, and I am more than excited to begin this journey towards my future career.
