Internship at Baylor College (Term Paper Sample)

Internship at Baylor College
Name
Institution
Date
For the period between August 25 and November 25, I was involved in an internship program at Baylor College of Medicine. I worked in the department of Human Resources. My working schedule ran from 9:00am to 4:00pm three days a week i.e. Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Sometimes, I would also work on Fridays. The first day at work, I was welcomed by my boss Kathy Puperi. Kathy is a very friendly person to be with. I spent a lot of time with her on that day. We discussed a lot of things ranging from personal goals to general discussions on life. I talked to her about my expectations and goals after I was through with my course at University of St Thomas. I am in my last semester, and I am particularly pleased with my Professor Charlene Dykman, my organizational behavior lecturer. She is a real inspiration to her students. During her lecture, she encourages critical and practical thinking in her students. She does this by giving real life situations that provoke one to be strategic while planning a solution to any single problem one may face while working under the department. I also told her about the hospital I own in Colombia. One of the goals I want to attain after I am through with my internship and my course is to work in the hospital at the human resource department. I also told her about the classes I am taking at St Thomas University and that this was my last semester in the university. I would be finishing this year in December. I will travel to Colombia after I am through with the course to continue with my career at the department of human resources.
In the second day of work, I went to new employee orientation program. Orientation is a very vital process for an employer. One of the major causes of stress for new employees is lack of enough information. It is therefore very important for an employee to know within the first day of work; what she is supposed to do, key people in her team and other relevant departments and people she may consult. This helps an employee to fit in the new job quickly. One of the methods one may use for a new employee orientation is by employee sponsorship (also referred to as “buddy system”). Its main goal is to help the new employee adopt their positions and the community.
After the first week, I was assigned the first project. The first project assignment was about the mother’s aid station. There had been complaints that the rooms were not sufficient and thus there was a compelling need to build more rooms. Baylor management did not have the money to expand the facility. The management did not also acknowledge the problem. To solve the biting issue, I first started visiting the station every day. While I was visiting, I also carried out a survey on the time it took the mothers took in the station and when the facility was most engaged. I provided them with sheets where they would sign in at the entrance and sign out when leaving. Confidentiality was considered at this level and thus, there wasn’t any information that would point to a specific individual collected. I only collected the day and the time the mothers spent in the rooms. After some weeks of survey, we found out that the rooms were mostly occupied from 11am to 3pm. This is the time when most people are at lunch. After analyzing of the information gathered, we carried out a subsequent survey to identify the underlying problem. We suspected that there were some mothers who were not breastfeeding at the moment taking advantage of the facility. Our fears were confirmed and found out indeed that there were mothers taking advantage of the facilities. In addition, we also found out that the chairs were dirty from milk spills. The rooms were not very clean either. I talked to the maids on the issue to see what we could do about keeping the rooms tidy. Later, I called the maintenance department and had the chairs changed. To lessen the work of the maids, I also introduced Clorox wipes to clean the chairs and tables off the milk spill overs.
After sometime, we started receiving positive feedback about the change from mothers through emails. Finally, to keep away the mothers who were not breastfeeding, a regulation system needed to be implemented. So, I talked to the vice president of maintenance to see if they would help us deploy security at the doors of each room. We devised an access system where breastfeeding mothers were given a six months validity badge. Anyone who would need a longer period would have to renew their badge. To avoid inconveniences to the mothers, who would not have the badges, I printed out a notice on the policy change several weeks before the effective date. In the notice, I pointed out that breastfeeding mothers would need to be registered for access. I also requested for their email address so that I could send them the new policies. As explained in the policy, this policy change was meant to allow only breastfeeding mothers to access the facility. They would then need to email the employee relations once their cards expired and needed to extend their period of access.
After the implementation of the policies, the rooms were now cleaner and the chairs were better. Eventually, Baylor did not need to spend more money on opening more rooms at the Mother’s Aid Station.
I was also assigned another project – Medical Assistant and Social Workers licenses, which ran simultaneously with this one. This was a continuous project and ran throughout the term. The project aimed at giving licenses to the Medical Assistants and Social Workers in the college. I had a list of the employees for every month. Their licenses also had different expiration dates throughout the month. So I had to confirm the validity every day. I also followed up the holders’ cards and would send them an email to remind them when nigh on expiry. I also cautioned them that they would not be able to get in work until the license was renewed. Like the previous project, it ran for three months.
A month long project was also assigned to me. This was Baylor Brochure for Staff Members. Preparation for the brochure was time consuming because of the numerous lists of things that were to be done. For example, the fonts and coloring was tedious and took a lot of time to finish. In the third week of preparing the brochure, we were invited for a two days manager training from 8:00am to 3:00pm by the Baylor’s staff. Two days prior to the training, our boss sent us an email containing the slides to be discussed during the training. This was so that one could print it if they found it convenient. The course agenda was “Managing to the Mission”.
Day 1, we looked at various topics. First, we looked at Insights Training with Tomeka Stewart. Under this topic we discussed a lot about employee training to improve performance in the institution. Of the things we discussed, there are points that we highlighted that are of great importance before undertaking a training program. Some of them include: training should be done at the request of the department and should suggest a minimum of five individuals prior to the training; one should always be on the look-out for additional equipment needed by an employee to perform a specific task.
The first day was divided into three sections. We went for an early lunch at 11:30 to keep up on our schedule. After the break, we went on to the Hiring Process with Kathy Puperi – our boss. This section talked about the process of recruiting and retaining the right employees. Under this section, we looked at the different requirements for choosing an employee and the guiding principles for choosing the employees one needs. One of the requirements is the goals of the specific department that need additional employees. Secondly, partnering with the recruiters is important and any final decision should be followed with a feedback to the recruiters.
Determining the ideal position of the employee is key to choosing the best candidate. Is the recruit a replacement of a new vacancy? It is important to define the kind of position that one fills up. Employing one in a position depends on the kind of work that needs to be done. There are different ways of advertising the position; by job description or by job posting. Job description is generic and serves a range of qualifications. The amount wages for the same is not also fixed. A job posting is however different from the former in that it targets a specific group of applicants. There are specific targets to be met both in wages and qualifications required. Other matters to be considered for a job posting are: title – accurate representatives; duties – descriptive; qualifications – they cannot change the minimum requirements; and a definite schedule and work conditions.
Other things you need to consider on hiring are whether the job would need external advertisement. Most job posts need an external advertisement since they are more descriptive in nature of their requirements. We also looked at different things one needs to know about interviewing prospective employees. The legal aspects of interviews, the kind of questions you need to ask in an interview and the overall behavior as the interviewer.
For the two days training, the college decided to cater for all our expenses. First, provided us with transport where a shuttle would pick us from the main campus for the two days long period. Transport, breakfast and lunch were provided to us for free
I also did a project on the policy for rehiring employees who were previously employed but have since left their jobs with the college. There were some guidelines on the conditions that would be considered for rehire. Most of them were controlled by the assignments where an end in one’s assignment meant automatic termination of your job. Once r...