Intern - Environmental Safety Training & Rounding

It's more than a career, it's a calling.

MO-SSM Health Saint Louis University Hospital

Worker Type:

Intern/Temporary (Trainee)

Job Highlights:

Internship Summary

Students will learn about a hospital “Environment of Care” through the lens of subject matter experts and by participating in rounding events at hospitals in the St. Louis region.  The goal is to complement academic learning with relatable experience in a hospital work environment.  This will allow students to apply their expertise from their chosen academic field to existing programs and regulatory compliance challenges faced in healthcare operations.

Internship learning objectives

At the end of the internship, students will:

• Understand key elements of an Environment of Care program that contribute to how a hospital works to keep patients, families, visitors, and staff safe during their time in the facility
• Understand hospital operations including how patients flow through a hospital and how each business unit contributes to patient care or other essential business elements
• Have seen patient facing and non-patient facing departments and understand their role
• Be knowledgeable about safety elements in the physical environment: How patients and staff are protected from harm through building design, engineering controls, and active and passive life safety systems including how these systems are maintained
• Be able to conduct Environment of Care rounds with a team and on their own
• Be able to make observations and to identify deficiencies and opportunities for improvement on rounds
• Be able to categorize deficiencies based on regulatory standards and share their findings with leadership
   

Eligibility

Undergraduates in their 3rd or 4th year of study or master’s candidates, working toward a degree in Health, Public Health, or medical disciplines, Environmental Safety, Sciences, or other degrees related to the healthcare field.

Process

Students will participate in 6-8 hours of classroom style training with the Regional Director of Environmental Safety and other subject matter experts where they will learn about the key elements of the Environment of Care program.

Students will then participate in guided Environment of Care rounds in one or more hospitals led by an Environmental Safety Specialist.  This will provide the student an experience to interact with a multidisciplinary team of experts who regularly conduct these events in the hospitals.  In addition to Environmental Safety, the rounding team incorporates leaders from Infection Prevention, Biomedical Engineering, Plant Operations, and Environmental Services.

Students will then conduct their own self-guided rounding events 4 hours per week or as available for the remainder of the course.  Deficiencies are entered on an iPad device for distribution to work groups and for reporting and follow up activities. 

Other Requirements (if for college credit)

Students shall keep a journal of their learnings and notes on their experiences throughout the internship.  Observations should be recorded on the hospital experience, the perception of safety in the physical environment, and the student’s assertions on ways to improve existing processes or practices.  Students shall also record noteworthy points of interest, patient, staff or other interactions or experiences that contributed to their learning or appreciation of the relevant topics and processes.

Students shall write an approximately 500-word reflection on their experience and be prepared to discuss their experience in an informal oral presentation with hospital leadership.

Job Summary:

Provides research, analysis and documentation support for projects assigned, while gaining a better understanding of how to handle the complex issues of healthcare