CHP 468 Internship (Prior Learning)
The internship serves as the culminating experience for students pursuing a BSHS degree. This course is a planned, supervised, and evaluated experience that provides the opportunity for students to integrate their classroom learning into experiential learning. As such, students must complete all major courses as listed in the appropriate University Catalog for the student’s admission year before enrolling in the internship. The minimum time investment is 200 hours. The internship will allow a BSHS student to gain basic job entry skills by working with experienced healthcare professionals in a public or private organization. Students are allowed to seek internship opportunities in inpatient hospitals, ambulatory clinics/services, physician practices, skilled nursing centers/homes, retirement communities, assisted living facilities, home health agencies, public health departments/community health centers, health related non-profits, insurance companies, and other similar healthcare settings.
Naval Hospital Beaufort Internship 2019
NHB Background
Naval Hospital Beaufort was opened in 1949 on 127 acres of land. Historically, the site was formerly the John Joiner Smith Plantation that included Camp Saxton, a Civil War garrison, and Fort Frederick, both recognized as National Historical sites. Naval Hospital Beaufort provides general medical, surgical and urgent care services to all active duty Navy and Marine Corps personnel, as well as retired military personnel and all military dependents residing in the Beaufort area, a total population of approximately 35,000 beneficiaries.
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During the first half of my internship as a senior surgical technologists and clinical supervisor my primary duties were vast. As a technician my primary role was to assist in all surgical procedure for both clinical and operating room setting. I was to ensure all equipment, surgical sets, and surgical auxiliaries were useable. My role as the medical supervisor consisted of more administrative duties. My main responsibilities consisted of training all junior sailors and civilians with accordance to Naval Hospital Beaufort's Polices. As a supervisor I conducted quarterly employee evaluations, that were used for promotional opportunities . As the supervisor, I was also responsible for disciplinary evaluations for sailors who failed to follow guides-lines established by the Navy and the Naval Hospital Beaufort. As a senior technician ther
During the second half of my internship as a surgical technologist and clinical supervisor my responsibilities shifted to more to a clinical improvement coordinator. My new responsibilities consisted of creating process of improvement projects. With the entire hospital preparing for the 2019 Joint Commission Readiness Inspection, I was in charge designing staff training records, creating a electronic patient referral/scheduling tracking, and developing a clinical competency form. During my internship the courses CHP 445 and MGMT 340 were extremely helpful with creating new policies and procedural guidelines. I was able to create and implement effective training manuals, digitalized dental records and a electronic referral system for the OMFS clinic. The second half of my internship was more about updating policies and procedures for the Oral Surgery Clinic. I noticed how the lack of updated information played a major part in the work ethics of several workers. A lot of mistakes that were made came from not having updated manuals for guidance and references. One of the major polices that needed updating was the Tissue Tracker Log Policy. In the prior inspections this area needed a lot of attention since many workers were not tracking tissue used during operative procedures. With workers not being familiar with how to properly document this critical information, many workers developed bad habits. Now focusing more on updating policies I was use many implement effective styles learned from different courses. Several of the newly implemented systems contributed to the hospital passing the 2019 Joint Commission's Inspection.
OMFS STANDARD OPERATING PROCEDURE MANUAL
The emergency resuscitation cart is located in the Dental/OMFS Service Post-anesthesia Recovery Room (2525). It is used only for initial response to medical emergencies occurring in the the department. When I first arrived to the clinic there was a a old policy used to explained how to manage the crash cart but it was outdated. One of the primary services provided by OMFS clinic is 3rd molar extractions under IV sedations. The original plan was used for the first 5 months of me being the clinical supervisor until a code blue emergency happened during a routine 3rd molar extraction. There were several errors that occurred during the emergency that proved the old policy needed updates. .The updated plan was developed to ensure all staff members understood where the crash cart was located and how to properly manage it.
Staff members are now able to see the Emergency Resuscitation Cart Log, located on the cart, for maintenance and evaluation protocols. The new policy expressed how the cart will be checked daily to ensure proper defibrillator function, adequate oxygen supply, suction operation, and an inventory of unsecured items. The daily checks are the responsibility of the duty technician and must be recorded in the logbook. Twice a month, during the first and third week, the cart is opened and a detailed inventory is performed. This is performed under the supervision of the service’s nursing staff. Restocking is performed if required and all outdated medications and supplies are replaced. This is also logged. An inventory of number seals is maintained in the logbook. These seals are obtained from the pharmacy department. This new update helped unify all staff members competency on how to manage the crash cart with accordance to the OMFS clinic SOP.
Ensuring all staff members are capable of handling assignments is extremely important in any medical facility. When I first arrived to the Naval Hospital Beaufort most of the training were passed around verbally with no tracking system. The majority of the population of sailors stationed at the hospital were first term sailors. Many were fresh out of boot camp and technician school with little to no experience. The need for a physical training form was necessary to ensure all staff members understood how to perform their duties. In the OMFS clinic and Main Operating room  a lot of training was conducted by the most senior technician and that person would pass their duties to the next individual. Once I became a member of the team it was important that some form of documentation was created to help train all staff members with accordance to the Commanding Officers expectations.  As the clinical supervisor, I created a univeral  training competency form for every member of the OMFS and Operating Room. These forms described all the daily actives in the departments and how to perform them. By creating a universal standardized personnel competency form, I increased new personals clinical abilities. With a standard PQS, new surgical and dental technicians were able to provide clinical capabilities in IV therapy, dental impressions, radiographic x-rays, surgical procedure assessment, and moderate sedation recoveries.Each member would have a senior technician sign off their competency form during their orientational period. Each member had 3 months to complete the form before being allowed to carry out assignments without a a lead technician. I managed 12 training records that included the competency forms ensuring all staff members were compliant with Naval Hospital Beaufort's regulations. The records were reviewed during the 2019 Joint Commission Accreditation Inspection, resulting in zero errors and discrepancies .
Operating Room Work Competency Form
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The Naval Institute for Dental and Biomedical Research has collaborated with the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery to add a component to Dental Common Access System (DENCAS) that will allow the identification of Emergency and Nonemer- gency treatment visits. DENCAS is used by the Navy Dental Corps to track patient treatment needs and treatment provided. Using the Emergency Dental Encounter  module, patients presenting with a dental emergency can be identified for worldwide surveillance of dental emergencies as well as for research purposes.
