Internship fosters unexpected career interest

This is a guest blog from Anna Bailey, senior at Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College and Intern at Providence Health Care in Terre Haute.

The second semester of my senior year at Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College I interned at Providence Health Care in Terre Haute, Ind. Providence Health Care is a skilled nursing and rehabilitation facility helping the Sisters of Providence and people in the surrounding community.

For the semester I interned under the director of health information. This was a very nerve-racking experience at first; I knew nothing about health care since I was a Business Administration major. In this internship I worked side-by-side with my site supervisor, and she helped me learn a large part of medical records and health information at a skilled nursing facility. I assisted her in daily tasks, including filing paper work, auditing charts, opening and closing charts for patients entering and leaving the facility, and other various tasks around the office.

About a month into my internship, I was able to understand the jargon used in medical records and was able to see the big picture for each task I was doing and was soon able to own small projects. I learned so much during this internship about how to work in a professional environment, and I was also able to gain a lot of self-confidence while working around professionals.

I loved interning at Providence Health Care. Every day I learned about a career field I wasn’t familiar with and developed professionally in an encouraging environment. All of the different departments were willing to work with me as I learned and helped teach me the different parts of Providence Health Care. Through my internship, I was able to learn about a career I am now interested in pursuing once I graduate. This is not something I expected when I went into this experience.

I would recommend to everyone in college to participate in an internship. You are able to receive first-hand experience you can’t learn in the classroom. It allows you to learn about yourself as a professional and what you might want to do later in life. It also gives you a chance to learn under knowledgeable professionals, which is a benefit when you go into your own career path.