Finishing up.

This summer consisted of new experiences for me.  I took my first summer college classes, met many new people, traveled to new places and started my first internship. This internship was my first real job experience. It gave me real life experience that is going to be extremely beneficial when I begin my career in nursing. Overall, this experience was great and I would do it again in a heartbeat.

My internship started on June 19^th at the Hart School Based Clinic. The clinic is part of the Plainview Foundation for Rural Health Advancement or PFRHA for short. The clinic is part of a group of clinics that work together to provide health and dental care to help people get the attention they need at a reduced price. During the duration of the summer, the clinic is mostly used for dental visits and allergy shots.  I worked at the clinic Tuesday through Thursday and occasionally Monday and Friday if the doctors were going to be in that day. My daily duties consisted of filing papers in patient’s charts, constructing charts for new patients, scheduling appointments, and answering phone calls. While working at the clinic I learned how to properly take a patient’s blood pressure and how to record it in a dental chart and a medical chart. I also learned how to clean dental equipment. The process is not very hard, but it is very important to do it properly to insure a healthy and sanitary environment for all patients. My particularly favorite thing that I learned at the clinic was how shots are prepared, administered, and recorded.

During the internship it was important that we do 10 hours of community service. I chose to do mine within my community. Two of my projects involved volunteering at our annual Hart Day’s celebration. I helped wash our community’s pavilion where the Miss Hart Pageant was to be held. I also helped the varsity cheerleaders sell drinks to raise money for the cheerleading program at Hart Day’s. The last hours of my community service where used helping my mom shampoo the carpet at the school. I felt like I was giving back to my community through each of these projects.

The people I worked with made me enjoy going to work every day. They were very easy to get along with and nice women. If I ever needed help with anything I knew I could count on any of them to help me out. Another perk of working on the school campus was that I got to see my mom pretty often because she worked at the school across the street.

All in all this experience was a good one. I enjoyed where I worked, what I did, who I worked with, and the internship itself. Ogallala Commons was a very good program for me. I learned a lot of new things and I grew as a person. The internship has helped better prepare me for what my future has in store for me.