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Introduction

My name is Paige Scheipe and I have had the opportunity to intern this Spring Semester

at the Gwinnett Newton Rockdale Health Department, located in Lawrenceville, Georgia. My

mission from the start of my internship has been to improve the health of those in the community

as well as those around me. At GNR, we are responsible for serving residents of Gwinnett,

Newton, and Rockdale County as well as individuals that have fled various countries. During my

time here I have shadowed various nurses at three of our clinics and have worked with several

different programs. Some programs to name include, the Early Hearing Detection Intervention

Program (EHDI), Children’s Medical Services (CMS), and the Breast and Cervical Cancer

Program (BCCP). My site supervisor is Pamela Austin, she is the Breast and Cervical Cancer

Program Operation Coordinator. Additionally, I have had the chance to work with numerous

different people within the health department. A few to name include, Audrey Arona (CEO/

District Health Director), Alice Hill (EHDI), Susan Frankenberg (CMS), Gwen Gustavson (RN,

Director of District Programs), Michele Kehler (Communications Specialist), Nadine Danahue

(NP, Norcross Clinic), Meseret Mekbib (RN, Lawrenceville Clinic), Evadnie Durant (NP,

Newton Clinic).

Description of Experiences

My role as an intern often varied week to week. I enjoyed this aspect of my internship

because it gave me the opportunity to work with many different people and learn many different

things. Fortunately, my internship has been extremely helpful in preparing me for the future but

also giving me the chance to make a difference at the health department. My role as an intern

during my time here included making a difference in the lives of those around me as well as

those in the community but also improving my life so that I can be successful in the future. The
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most rewarding part of my internship has been shadowing various nurses at our clinics. This

opportunity gave me insight into what I want to do in the future after graduation. I had the

chance to shadow many different types of nurses. For example, I shadowed nurse practitioner

and a registered nurse. Additionally, they roles included women’s health as well as children’s

health. The most challenging part has been making phone calls for the Early Hearing Detection

Intervention Program. This part of my internship has been very difficult for me because I was

responsible for calling the parents of children that did not pass their initial or follow up hearing

screening. This was difficult for me at times because sometimes parents were not interested in

talking and did not want to believe that their child may have hearing loss. Additionally, it was

difficult to hear from parents that their child sadly passed away. Although working with the

EHDI program was a difficult task, I am confident that this part of my internship helped me

improve my communication skills for the future. Unfortunately, I did not start visiting our clinics

and shadowing nurses until quite some time into the semester. I wish that I could have spent

more time, hands on, in the different clinics as I know that this gave me some great experience

and truly impacted me.

Perception and Evaluation of the Internship

My internship at the Gwinnett Newton Rockdale Health Department has exceeded my

personal expectations. Prior to my internship at GNR, I was planning on working in the medical

device sales field and did not have much interest in continuing my education after graduation.

After working with many different programs and nurses here at the district office, I developed an

interest to continue my education and attend nursing school. I voiced to my supervisor as well as

some of my colleagues of my interest in nursing school. I am so glad that I voiced my opinion to

them because quickly after that, I was placed at many of our clinics to shadow various nurses so
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that I could ultimately make a decision about nursing school. After seeing what a day in the life

would be of a nurse and thoroughly enjoying my time in the clinics, I have made the decision to

go to nursing school! Without this internship and opportunity to shadow some nurses I don’t

think I would be continuing my education. From the start of my internship, my organization was

very open to my ideas and suggestions to better their programs. They expressed to me in January

that they would love any possible suggestions so I began thinking how I could make things easier

and more effective. One idea that I had included the Early Hearing Detection Intervention

Program. I suggested that Alice Hill print out any notifications that she may receive so that I

could work on them on my designated day that I work with the program. This system was

effective and allowed me to have some independence. Alice has voiced to me that this has been

great and has helped her out tremendously. My supervision from my site supervisor, Pamela

Austin, was effective. Pam was sure to check in on me at least once every couple of days to

ensure that everything was okay. I do think that my experience could be improved if I was told

what I was doing wrong at times. I do believe that I was effective at my job, but I do know that I

was not perfect in every task that I was given. Another aspect that I wish was different at my

internship is organization. At times, things were a bit unorganized and communication was not

the best. I know that if things were better organized and communication was better, the many

programs would be more effective. I would recommend GNR to future interns as I know that I

have been prepared for a future in public health. If a future student was planning on interning

here, I would suggest to them that they have a plan on which program that they would like to

work with from the beginning. I have loved the chance to work with different programs and see

how they operate, but I know that some may not enjoy that and may want to focus on one single

program. As of right now, I would not consider a career in a setting such as this one. I would like
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to have a career in a hospital setting after I complete nursing school. I would be open to returning

to a setting like this one later in life. There are many nurses at the district office that once worked

in a hospital setting and came here later in life as it is a less stressful workplace than the hospital.

The nurses at the district are still able to practice nursing and maintain their license by working

with the different programs although they are not practicing on patients in person.

Internship Preparedness

I personally believe that I was well prepared academically for my internship at GNR. Honestly,

there was never a time that during the semester that I felt like I was not academically prepared.

One area that I have felt most confident in has been grants. Grants are used on a daily basis here

and they have been a large part of my final project. Towards the ends of the Fall Semester, we

had the chance to learn about them in Community Health and the lengthy process is required to

obtain them. The grant that I have used for my final project was obtained prior to my time here

but my site supervisor explained to me how it was obtained and the process that they went about

to ultimately receive the money. I felt confident and knowledgeable in using grant funds while

she was explaining the process and while I was using the money to execute my final project. It

has been very rewarding to me to see everything come full circle. One area that I did not feel

prepared in has been communication. As stated before, I have had some responsibility in calling

parents and communicating to them that their child did not pass their hearing screening and what

their next steps must be to ensure that their child in safe and healthy. I did not feel confident in

doing this task at first because I have never been taught how to effectively communicate in a

setting such as this one. I believe that it would be a good idea to have public health students take

a public speaking class during their college experience so that they can effectively communicate

upon graduation. Community Health with Dr. K, Epidemiology with Dr. Francis, and Intro to
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Public Health with Ms. Flores have been most helpful and relevant to my internship placement.

Community Health prepared me to work with grants successfully as stated before. Epidemiology

was helpful in the fact that I was aware of the six-core functions of Epidemiology. With this

information, I was able to see each core used at the health department. I was also made aware of

the significance of each part after my experiences. Lastly, Intro to Public Health was extremely

helpful because the determinants of health have been used daily during my internship. I am glad

that I was confident in knowing the meaning of each determinant so that I could give my opinion

from time to time. I believe that GCSU/ School of Health and Human Performance should make

it mandatory for students to shadow their internship site prior to their start date to ensure that it is

a good fit for them and will benefit them in the future. I have talked with some fellow students

about their internship experience and I truly believe that this will be beneficial to both the

internship site as well as the student.

Internship Performance

Over the course of the past couple of months, I have obtained a lot of knowledge and some new

skills. My number one skill that I have improved on is communication. I have learned that

effectively communicating is a hard task, but I do believe that I have truly improved over time.

At first, I was skeptical of calling parents but now I feel confident in communicating with just

about anyone. I have come to find out that you must feel confident in what you are doing to

properly communicate. Without confidence, you will not be successful. Additionally, I have

improved on communicating with those that I work with. In the beginning it was hard for me to

ask for help because I felt like I was failing. As time has gone on, I have realized that asking for

help is quite the opposite of failing. It is crucial that you ask for help so that a task can be

productively completed. It has helped a lot that I work with people that want to help me and
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make me better. I have recognized that it is important to work with people that are kind and open

to helping you. Although, I have improved my communication skills, I believe that I still have

some improvement to make so that I can reach my full protentional after graduation. I have been

satisfied with all of my work and assignments during my internship. I truly feel proud and

confident that I have completed everything to the best of my ability and that is a good feeling to

have!

Personal/ Professional Insights/ Benefits

My internship at the Gwinnett Newton Rockdale health department has impacted my

personal, professional, and academic goals in a positive way. It has impacted me personally and

professionally because without this internship I do not think I would be going to nursing school

after graduation. I am a firm believer of everything happens for a reason and I truly believe that I

was placed here so that I could make this decision so that I can be the best version of myself later

in life. This internship has impacted my academic goals because I have been able to see

everything that I have learned in school come to life and used in person. While taking courses, it

is hard to understand when something that you are learning will be used in your career, but I can

confidently say that I wish I never felt that way because I felt prepared to complete any task that

I was given. Over the course of my internship, I have gained plenty of insight on women's health

and children’s health and the many ways that the health department is actively working to

improve the health of the public. My one hope is that individuals become more aware of the

many positive impacts that the health department offers for the public. Overall, I am so glad that

I have had the opportunity to intern at the Gwinnett Newton Rockdale Health Department and I

am very thankful for the many lessons that I have learned during my time here! Additionally, I
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am very grateful for all of my professors during my time at Georgia College and State

University. Without them, I would not have been able to effectively complete my internship!