Hi everyone! My name is Anne Mammone and I’m an intern with region 4. I started my internship in February after having just moved from Pittsburgh to Philadelphia. I started at a long-term care facility where I completed my basic clinical and long-term care rotations. I really enjoyed starting my clinical rotation at this location, as it is a slower pace than an acute care hospital, which gave me the opportunity to really improve upon my patient assessment skills. By the end of my basic clinical rotation, I felt more than ready to pick up the pace at an acute care hospital. I no sooner started my intermediate clinical rotation at Nazareth Hospital in Philadelphia, when the COVD-19 pandemic began. I completed about 3 weeks of that rotation before deciding to stay at home to quarantine until further notice. During this time, my directors have gone above and beyond to make themselves available to me and the other interns to help us get through this time.
From the few weeks that I was able to be on site for my intermediate clinical rotation, I was already experiencing growth in my clinical skills, as well as improvement in my time-management skills. By the end of those first few weeks, I was able to see up to 4 patients of various disease states each day for new assessments or follow ups, in addition to performing any education consults we received that day. I was learning so much from the dietitians each and every day. With that being said, my internship looks a lot different now than it did during the first 2 months. I am taking this time to work from home on assignments, simulations, and attending webinars to continue progressing through my internship. I am thankful to have had some on-site experience prior to this pandemic, as I can use this time to continue to grow in my knowledge through the online resources that Sodexo has provided to us. My directors and fellow interns have been my support system thorough all of this. Our directors made sure that we had more than enough resources to help us to continue our internship virtually, without falling too far behind our intended graduation date. We have implemented additional Skype meetings so that we can ask our directors any questions, share any concerns we have, and just talk to other people that are going through the exact same experience.
Although this is not how I expected the beginning of my internship to go, Sodexo has provided us with a magnitude of resources and support so that we can progress with our internship virtually. My advice to future interns would be to roll with whatever comes your way! Take the opportunities you have on-site and try to learn as much as you can from the individuals you have the chance to work with. This is YOUR chance to take in as much experience as possible. Be thankful for the amazing opportunities this internship is providing to you!
From the few weeks that I was able to be on site for my intermediate clinical rotation, I was already experiencing growth in my clinical skills, as well as improvement in my time-management skills. By the end of those first few weeks, I was able to see up to 4 patients of various disease states each day for new assessments or follow ups, in addition to performing any education consults we received that day. I was learning so much from the dietitians each and every day. With that being said, my internship looks a lot different now than it did during the first 2 months. I am taking this time to work from home on assignments, simulations, and attending webinars to continue progressing through my internship. I am thankful to have had some on-site experience prior to this pandemic, as I can use this time to continue to grow in my knowledge through the online resources that Sodexo has provided to us. My directors and fellow interns have been my support system thorough all of this. Our directors made sure that we had more than enough resources to help us to continue our internship virtually, without falling too far behind our intended graduation date. We have implemented additional Skype meetings so that we can ask our directors any questions, share any concerns we have, and just talk to other people that are going through the exact same experience.
Although this is not how I expected the beginning of my internship to go, Sodexo has provided us with a magnitude of resources and support so that we can progress with our internship virtually. My advice to future interns would be to roll with whatever comes your way! Take the opportunities you have on-site and try to learn as much as you can from the individuals you have the chance to work with. This is YOUR chance to take in as much experience as possible. Be thankful for the amazing opportunities this internship is providing to you!
