Skip to main content

Pee Dee AHEC Health Careers Summer Internship Program Places Students from Five Counties

Left to right: Sabrora Lemmon, Brittany Lewis, Brittany Brown, Kathryn Johnson,
Courtney Brown,
Synobia Miller, Samoria Session 

Summer interns in the Pee Dee AHEC Health Careers Summer Internship Program have begun their summer work experiences. Students have been placed in facilities that align with their health career aspirations. This summer’s internship class includes high school and college students from Florence, Sumter, Clarendon, Horry and Marion counties. 

To prepare for the work experience, the interns first gathered for an orientation and training session at McLeod Regional Medical Center in Florence. The session addressed topics such as communication skills, professional appearance, and ways to optimize internship experiences. Orientation also allowed the students to meet one another and interact in person with the health careers program coordinator.

During orientation, three health professions students along with Traci Coward, Pee Dee AHEC Health Professions Student Coordinator, offered advice to the interns to help them enter their internship successfully. Traci Coward told them to “remember, the preceptors have been where you are – they were students at one point too,” encouraging the students to not be afraid to ask questions. Other tips included finding ways to integrate into the interdisciplinary team, communicating with staff, and showing engagement. Two of the health professions students: Aaron Sloan and Erin Myers were able to offer advice from a preceptor-student relationship, as Aaron Sloan is pharmacy resident and preceptor to Erin Myers.

This summer’s interns have interests in surgery, nursing, pharmacy, occupational therapy, healthcare administration, human resources, optometry, pediatrics, obstetrics and gynecology, and cardiology. The interns will work through the end of July. As both an educational and work experience, interns will also participate in enrichment activities for student development and present a final project.

For more information, please contact Pee Dee AHEC Health Careers Program Coordinator Larrissa Clavon at lclavon@mcleodhealth.org.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

SC AHEC Scholars: Preparing the Next Generation of Primary Care Providers

Hannah Robinson, MD knew she wanted to pursue a career in healthcare from a young age.  “I’ve always wanted to be a doctor since about the sixth grade,” said Dr. Robinson. “I remember being in health class and watching the Miracle of Life video and just being fascinated with women and their ability to create and bear life.” Prior to attending medical school, Dr. Robinson spent time working on the obstetrics unit at her local hospital in Rock Hill and observed a trend with their patients. “What I noticed was a lot of the families that we serviced actually weren’t from Rock Hill. We also served surrounding counties that were really rural and seeing how these families were traveling to Rock Hill to deliver their babies was really shocking to me,” said Robinson.  Due to a maldistribution of OB/GYNs in the state of South Carolina, individuals may have to travel great distances just to receive the care they need. In its most recent South Carolina Health Professions Data Book published in 20

Lowcountry AHEC’s Strong Partnerships Serve School Nurses Statewide

For over three decades, Lowcountry AHEC has been proud to support school nurses across South Carolina in their professional development through statewide conferences and meetings. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit and in-person events came to a halt, Lowcountry AHEC along with their partners, were able to pivot to alternate methods to continue providing training opportunities for school nurses. One such way Lowcountry AHEC was able to adapt was implementing online modules so that school nurses could continue to receive the same professional development and learning opportunities in a virtual setting. The first course, Foundations of School Nursing , included nine modules and was uploaded to the South Carolina AHEC Learning Portal (ALP) by August 2020 . With over 1,600 registrations to this day, Foundations of School Nursing is the most popular course currently on ALP. “We began to do some work with them on online modules,” said Lowcountry AHEC Center Director Diane Mathews. “All new schoo

Mid-Carolina AHEC Meets Local Workforce Need

After discussions with multiple community partners, Mid-Carolina AHEC established a Nurse Aide Training Program in 2018 aimed at assisting regional healthcare facilities with their hiring and retention needs. The Nurse Aide Training Program is designed to provide individuals with the knowledge and skills necessary to perform basic care services for patients (in an acute care setting) or residents (in a long-term care setting). All classes and clinical rotations are held nearby to reduce travel for participants and Mid-Carolina AHEC works directly with both a regional rural hospital and a long-term care facility to provide training that supports facility staffing schedules. “Initially the goal was to provide the training locally, because at that time, the closest facility was about 30 miles away,” said Rebecca Jackson, a Continuing Professional Development Coordinator at Mid-Carolina AHEC. “This is a six-week course and by the end, participants are eligible to sit for their certificatio