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So I've been working at my internship for 2 weeks and my schedule has been jammed to the max. I have been working in and out of the office mostly with the implementation team. I've been able to go out to three different practices for some QA issues with the users and to do a system check before the practice receives their training and has their go live. Last week I was also able to go to a practice with the director of implementation to do a practice assessment in order to create the workflow analyses.
All of us also were able to go into NYC last Friday for the eCW users' conference. It was mostly all doctors there who use eClinical Works, but some members from our company went because that is the EMR that we deal with the most. It was informative and a good time to get out and get to go to the city, even though we had to get up at 4:30 a.m. to catch our train. Other than that I have been in countless meetings, conference calls and Web meetings all dealing with EMRs and other related issues. Hopefully I continue to stay busy and keep learning a lot while I'm here.
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With class finished up one would think it would be smooth sailing all around. Unfortunately that's now how life works. I am leaving tomorrow for NY for my internship and I have yet to pack one item as of now. Albeit my fault, it still is an unfortunate predicament. I've just been very busy meeting with friends and family before I leave and tying up loose ends before I leave, that it just crept up on me and now I have to pack everything right now! Anyway, I will be updating once I get to NY and telling of my experience of my internship and all of the adventures the four of us will be getting into.
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Next Wednesday, we have our finance final and our finance project due and then we are officially done with our classroom curriculum. Cristin and I will also be finishing up our project next week, being that our last presentation is on Tuesday. Every presentation and meeting has gone really well, especially the one we had Thursday of this week. We met with the College Information Specialist at a local high school for about an hour and a half to discuss the major and career. Before we met with her she had never heard of the major and didn't realize that it was offered at our university. She was very interested in the information we provided her with and she gave us a lot of great feedback we can use in our paper to inform our program of how to better market to prospective students. Overall I think this project was a great success and I am really glad that we are helping to get the word out about our profession.
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It seems so hard to believe that I only have two weeks of class left before we go on spring break and all head off tour our internships. That's right, in three short weeks I will be in NY, working at an EHR company for a total of five weeks. It just seems so surreal and I can't believe that I'm actually getting to experience this great opportunity.
Other than my excitement and nervousness about my internship, I have been presenting for my project. We had three classes that we presented to and one guidance counselor meeting. I think that they all went really well and that there was interest in some of the classes. The guidance counselors also responded really well and were interested in hearing about the program because they were unaware of it, which was really surprising to me. I am really interested in seeing if all of our hard work makes an impact on anyone being interested and actually pursuing the major and profession. I guess only time will tell in this case.
Also, on an extremely positive note, we got back our finance midterms this week and I did excellent. Actually, I got an even better grade than I thought so I was really pumped about this. Well, I am off to do some homework even though it is a little late to be starting, but it must be done.
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Our midterm on Wednesday in our finance class wasn't actually that bad. I went over some problems with Cristin on Tuesday during the day and then went over my notes that night. I think that I did really well on it and I am anxious to see what my grade is on Monday. Also on Tuesday, Cristin and I went and talked to Rebecca, our advisor/project facilitator, about our project and then we printed out a lot of information we are putting in the binders for guidance counselors.
We also are working on our video this week and are editing it and will be done with it by the weekend. Our handouts we are going to give out in our big lecture presentations are almost done as well and we will have to make copies of them on Monday before we go and do our first presentations. Next week we have three presentations at the university and one meeting with a guidance counselor, so we are on our way now to actually getting out there and sharing our information. I am actually really nervous to present so it should be rather interesting I suppose. Wish me luck!
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This upcoming week we are having our midterm in our finance class and I am a little worried. I know that I definitely have to go over my notes and rework problems so that I am prepared. We are also still planning out our project. This past week I scheduled several visits with local high school guidance counselors so that we can meet with them and discuss our major and profession. We will start visiting with them and also presenting to classes here at the university in about two weeks. We still have some planning we need to get done and we will be busy with printing out information and preparing binders for the counselors.
We are also busy with the video which will have a little bit of filming we still need to get done, and then we have to edit it all into a cohesive piece. I'm probably the most worried about the video just because I want it to turn out well. Nothing else is really going on except just keeping up with assignments online from our electronic health record class. I still need to start looking for jobs and send out my resume in the very near future and will hopefully get that done soon.
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Today we all woke up to freezing rain and frozen sidewalks. It was not a fun walk to class today to say the least. Thankfully we only had one class today, financial management, which I actually was on time for despite our unfortunate weather conditions. I also squeezed in a trip to the gym before heading home since I was already out in that misery. In our finance class we are going over assets, liabilities, owner's equity, revenue, and expenses. At first I was getting it, and then I was only able to get through about half of our homework that was due today. Fortunately though, he always goes over our homework with us as a class so that our professor can make sure everyone is getting the material. It really helped me today and I think I actually understand what is going on with all of the components and how they fit on the T chart. We were also supposed to have a meeting about our CE4 today, but it was cancelled due to the weather. Instead we all received an e-mail assignment in which we are supposed to write out at least five goals we wish to achieve during our externship. Also, a lot of people still need to choose where they are going so there was a list for those people and they are to list their first four choices in order. Hopefully everyone gets where they would like to go and it all works out in the end for them. I know that very thankful that I already have mine set up and don't have the stress of wondering where I will be going.
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So as I think I mentioned before we have our EHR class in an online format. Our book comes with a CD that has a virtual EHR that we are supposed to use to build our own electronic health record so we are able to see the formats and how everything works. Well, of course our software isn't compatible with Windows Vista and everyone is having trouble actually getting the software to even install. I had this bright idea that I would get my 100-year-old laptop fixed because then I would be able to take it with me when I go on my clinical. Well that is no longer an option because I don't even know where the driver CDs are to even get reformat everything, plus it also needs a new fan. I think my roommate Cristin and I are going to have to install XP on our computers and run them with Vista at the same time, which I still have no clue how to even do that, but I guess we will just have to figure that out. That is the mess that I have been trying to deal with. Plus I also had to work overnight this weekend and almost wrecked several times on the way there because there was a freak snowstorm that dumped almost 2 inches in about 45 minutes. So I am trying to deal with all of this plus work on my senior project and get our video started for our presentations. Hopefully Cristin and I can get all of this together this week and get ourselves organized.
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It's finally the beginning of my last semester and I am getting really excited to graduate. This semester is a lot of independent work for us so I feel that it is really preparing us for the real world when you don't have someone checking up on you every little step but rather wants your complete project. We only have one class that we have to physically attend and that is our financial management class. We've only had a couple of classes and I've heard that it's hard, but I'm hoping for the best even though we have to cram everything into 9 weeks so we can be done before we all have to work at our clinical.
Cristin and I have been planning and working on our senior project and I think it is going to come together rather nicely for us. We are planning on educating people about what HIM is and trying to attract future students for the program. We have been e-mailing professors at the university and will be contacting local high schools in order to see if we are able to reach the most possible students. So far we have had a good response rate and we hope to be adding more presentations to our schedule.
Other than that I just need to start really concentrating on researching companies and sending out my resume to them. I think I would really like to end up working where I am doing my clinical but I know that I always need to have some backup plans in the works.
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Well it's finally the end of the semester and I'm pretty much at my wits end. I've been having an erratic sleep pattern and pretty much going crazy, but it will all be over on Wednesday! Last week I turned in my twenty hour project and also presented it to my class. My professor gave me really good feedback and sent it on the people who are doing research on the topic, and there is a good chance that part of my research will get publish, which I'm super excited about. Last week we also presented our systems analysis group project. Our team's topic was electronic documentation so we made our proposal as if we were a consulting company in the physician setting market. I think we did rather well and our professor enjoyed the touch of creativity we added throughout our presentation.
Yesterday was our health law final and I don't think I did that well on it. I thought I did badly on the midterm too, but I ended up getting a really good grade, so I'm hoping this went the same way. Today I have our HR final and it's an essay so I should be able to do well on that. After today there's only one more and that's systems, and then freedom.
I am looking forward to the semester being over and having some time off to relax. I will be working on weekends at the mall though trying to make some extra money and probably starting my senior project with Cristin, so it won't be all relaxation.
I hope everyone has a happy and safe holiday and I will be updating more when the new semester begins.
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So it's right before the Thanksgiving holiday and I have a lot on my plate, no pun intended. I just have a lot to do in the next couple of weeks before the semester is over. This week I have a quiz in my non-traditional class and I am also still working on my 20-hour project for that class, and that is due December 1. I still haven't done my homework that's due on Tuesday for HR and it requires reading about 30 pages so I will be doing that most of Monday night. I also need to be working on my deliverable for our systems project because I have to e-mail it to one of my group members by Wednesday because we have to present the following week.
One would think I would be looking forward to this break but I will be busy working on my project still and trying to catch up on a couple of other things. I am also working Black Friday at a retail clothing store ... I'm crazy, I know! I do need some extra money though and you gotta do what you gotta do, right? Anyway I will be checking in again soon, and hopefully I won't be as erratic then.
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After working on our senior proposal last weekend, we turned it in this week and we got really good feedback so I'm sure our project should be approved soon. It will take a little while for us to get the final word but I have a good feeling about it. After that was all done, we had a health law test on Monday. It was the craziest test I've ever taken with two whole pages of a matching section so we had to flip back and forth to try and match up the answers. I don't know if that was the worst part or the multiple answer, not multiple choice, where there could be multiple answers that were correct, or even the infamous none of the above. It literally blew my mind and everyone else's as well, so at least I wasn't in it alone.
In my HR class we had an employment lawyer come in to speak with us and he explained different cases that he's worked on so we could get a good understanding on issues that people sue over regarding the workplace. We spent a lot of time talking about discrimination specifically, and the ways that people can prove it or not. He also gave us insight on what we should be documenting as managers if someone isn't performing well and should be fired, so as to not be sued for discrimination.
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So this week was a very monumental week. First the election was very exciting being that we elected our first African American President. I'm very excited and proud of our country for making an excellent choice, in my opinion. We had a nice discussion in one of my classes about how we felt this would affect us in the health care industry and whether it was good or bad.
Also, I recently learned that I got accepted for my externship in New York. I will be going there with three of my classmates to work for a company who does EHR implementation in physician settings. It's a very exciting opportunity and I am thankful that we will be getting 5 weeks of hands on experience with such a great company. I am also started to plan for my senior project, which I am doing with my friend Cristin. We are working on the educational side of HIM and how we can promote the major and get out the word to other students. We will be focusing on undergrads who are in related majors and may want to switch, undecided majors, and local high school students who are looking at colleges and what majors would be a good fit for them.
This weekend I will continue to be working on my 20 hour project as well as studying for my law midterm on Monday, and I know it's going to be extremely hard. I better get going and start cracking the books.
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I swear that I've lost track of time because I don't even know where last week went or what even happened. All I know is that before I turned around it was gone and so was all of its precious time it contained. This week has already been slightly hectic being that we had a take home essay test delivered to us on Monday and it was due Wednesday. It wasn't too extremely bad except for the fact that my head spun completely around after reading the first question, but that is a minor detail. I've also been trying to get a little bit of work done on my 20-hour project being that the draft is due next Monday and I have a lot more work to get done so that's been in my mind this whole time too.
Tomorrow I think I'm going to try and get organized and see about setting up my 90-hour project where I did my CE1 last spring. Hopefully I will be able to be creative and get something figured out before it's too late. I'm going to go and visit there tomorrow after I have my clinical for the day which should be interesting because it's focusing on compliance and privacy and we've had our host as a guest speaker before and I really enjoyed her presentation. Other than all of this I'm just slowly losing my mind.
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I'm back from my little stint in Seattle at the convention and I must say that this traveling around has left me a little run down and with a cold. Unfortunately for me I have my clinical e-mail update due this week as well as my human resources midterm ... aka no time for rest.
As for the convention, it was really exciting and a bit overwhelming at the same time. There were so many vendors that it wouldn't be possible to talk to all of them if you wanted to. However, we did have time to talk to a good number of them and try to get a feel of what is going on in the industry. We also found time to try and win prizes such as iPods, which four of my classmates were able to accomplish, as well as one of my professors, so that is really exciting.
Another exciting event was last Sunday when we went to a bowling event with a vendor called MedPartners. It was mainly for their clients but a lot of students were also invited to the event, which I thought was really nice of them. At the event we were able to network with other students as well. We met students from Southwestern Oklahoma State University as well as St. Scholastica University in Minnesota. I personally spent a while talking to a few students from St. Scholastica and were comparing our schools programs and where we saw ourselves working. I actually became friends with some of them and hope to be able to keep in touch with them in over the years and be able to see where we all end up professionally.
Another fun event was that my class attended my school's alumni reception at the hotel next to the convention. We were able to meet some of the alumni of our program and just chat amongst ourselves at the reception. We also got a chance to see our professors out of the classroom and we all took many group shoots throughout the evening.
As for the rest of my time in Seattle ... it was filled with wonderful sightseeing. We went to the Pike Place Market, the Space Needle, and the Underground Tour in the Pioneer Square section of the city. I really liked the Underground Tour because it gave a very colorful depiction of the city's history and if you are ever in Seattle, I would highly recommend it.