Biweekly report 1

Internship – Bi-weekly Report # 1 Name: Brenna Coles Date Submitted: Friday January 25, 2013 E-mail Address: Brenna.Coles@dal.ca Cell/Home Phone: 506-233-7532 (cell)/ 506-857-9986 (home) Bi-weekly Reporting Period: From: January 14, 2013 ___

To: January 25, 2013

Part 1. Bi-weekly Time (%) Report Administrative/Clerical Meetings Research/Study Presentations Journals/Reports Other _____________

_27_% _2_% _70_% ____% _1__% ____%

Observation ____% Planning/Preparation ____% Problem Solving ____% Attend conference/workshops ___% Interventions ____% Evaluation of Programs ____%

Part 2. Actual Time Log Week Dates Sun Mon Tues Wed Thur

1

2

Fri

Jan.

8am- 8am- 8am- 8am-

8am-

14

4pm

4pm

4pm

Jan.

8am- 8am- 8am- 8am-

8am-

21

4pm

4pm

4pm

4pm

4pm

4pm

4pm

Sat

Total Job Hours Competencies Used During the Week 40 Competency A: Obtains health-related data about social and cultural environments, growth and development factors, needs, and interests.

Selects valid sources of information about health needs and information 40 Competency A: Obtains health-related data about social and cultural

environments, growth and development factors, needs, and interests.

Selects valid sources of information about health needs and information Part 3.

Personal analysis of your professional development

Keeping in perspective that this is only my first two weeks into my internship, my major learning experience has been realizing the reality of the roles and responsibilities of the Health Promoter in this particular job setting. I feel as though my eyes have been opened and I see what it is like in the day of a health promoter in employee health services at the Moncton City Hospital. Over the past two weeks, have observed Marilyn Babineau, the manager of Employee Health Services and realized her role is not patientcentered, yet rather an administrative desk job. I also understand that being a new internship student I would have to be immersed slowly into the duties. Therefore in the first week when I was given the administrative task of alphabetically ordering all of the student immunization forms and inputting the data into a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet, I was not surprised. I expected to be given a lot of these mini tasks that take time but not much skill. It would make economic sense to give these types of jobs to the unpaid intern.

I was pleased to help and complete this task, so I worked for about three full days. I worked quickly so that I would prove my work ethic and diligence to my supervisors and co-workers. I was proud when I was able to tell Marilyn that the spreadsheet was completed.

In the past two weeks, three things in particular have surprised me. The first surprise arose when I had my first meeting with Marilyn on January 16, 2013. I asked about the employee health services and programs currently being offered by the Moncton City Hospital. I wanted to be able to assist in the implementation or even development of these programs. However, to my surprise no programs are currently being offered to the employees. The major task that Marilyn is faced with is the Flu Campaign which looks like it is taking up most of her time. This is because this year a new flu immunization policy for all Horizon Health Network employees has been implemented. This new policy is somewhat controversial as it states that any employee, who does not receive the flu vaccine, must wear a mask within six feet from any patient. I think this policy definitely gives incentive to all employees to receive the flu vaccine. However, I am wondering how the compliance is going and enforcement. I think it would be hard for managers in different units and departments to know who has and has not received the vaccine and therefore who must be wearing a mask. In addition, one situation has arose where an employee had a bad reaction to a flu vaccine in the past and her doctor advised her against receiving future flu vaccines, also this particular employee has asthma which

makes it difficult to wear a mask. I am not sure what the outcome or solution was for this particular case but I will ask Marilyn. Moreover, not having any ongoing smoking cessation groups, heart healthy clinics, physical activity programs or even nutritional lunch and learns was extremely eye opening for me, because I thought this department was responsible for and highly involved in promoting employee wellness.

The second thing that surprised me was the participation rate of the Employee Family Assistance Program (EFAP). The participation rate for the EFAP for Horizon Health Network in 2010/2011 was 2.8% and the national average is 9.5%. I was expecting much higher participation rates. Even comparing ours to the national average there is a significant difference. Although that was a minimal part of my first two weeks it has stayed in my mind, almost like a red flag. There must be some initiative to improve the participation rate, or else having an EFAP may not be cost effective if the rate is so low and when researching I found great evaluation measure is the return on investment (ROI), cost-benefit and/or cost effectiveness analyst.

Finally the most surprising thing overall was the fact that employee health services does not actively have an assessment of needs in place to survey their employees to gain insight where there gaps lie or where the issues are whether it be health, social, or environmental. Perhaps this is why there are no current employee health services or programs. Therefore, I see an urgent need for there to be an assessment be developed and implemented as soon as possible. This is seen as a major initiative and has also become my Special Service Project which I will be working on throughout the course of my internship. However, it seems as through they wish to have it focused on new employees/new hires. When reviewing the old files and documents related to this initiative. I realized that this has been on the strategic business plan since the summer of 2009. The original deadline was in 2010, however with the outbreak of H1N1 in fall 2009 it was downgraded as a low priority item. Now I am restarting this imitative, there are many documents and lots of previous research was completed thus far, I was able to finish reading all of the files and feel as though I am up to speed on where they left off.

The end of this week I was able to draft my goals and objectives. The major professional goal I have started on is my Special Service Project. I am glad that I have sufficient time to read all of the supporting documents and previous research which was completed on it thus far. Having time to work on it while I am at work is very helpful. I do hope that my work tasks pick up and Marilyn allows me to continue to attend meeting with her. Also, Aidan has mentioned several time about getting clearance for me to post on social networking sites such as Facebook regarding topics regarding employee health as it pertains to health promotion. . I have high expectations for myself, and my goals and objectives reflect this. I anticipate for great professional and personal development over the next 12 remaining weeks.

Photos of my office