Stephanie Cannon

Dr. Kaninjing

KINS 4306

14 April 2022

Reflection Paper

Introduction:

My name is Stephanie Cannon, and I am a senior public health major at Georgia College

and State University. For the past few months, I have been an intern at the Fellowship Home at

Meriwether in Milledgeville, Ga. The Fellowship Home at Meriwether is a senior living facility

with an assisted living unit and a memory care unit. The facility holds sixty residents, with forty-

two assisted living residents and eighteen memory care residents. The Milledgeville location is

just one of many fellowship homes throughout the southeast. There are five fellowship homes

scattered throughout Georgia, and there is also a fellowship home in Seabring, Florida. The

Fellowship Home at Brookside is the original community, and it was built in Valdosta, Georgia,

in 1978. It is a family-owned business whose goal was to create a place that seniors could call

their "home away from home." Several generations of the family still own and operate these

facilities.

The Fellowship Home at Meriwether's offers its residents many amenities that make the

facility stand out amongst other long-term care facilities. Along with its beautiful grounds home-

like feel, this facility provides private dining, a salon, a library, housekeeping, transportation,

devotionals and worship services, and a fitness and wellness program. In addition, the activity

directors do an excellent job of providing interactive and social activities for all the residents.
These activities include the dining club, field trips, shopping trips, cookouts, picnics, gardening,

parties, exercise class, bingo, singing groups, devotionals, movie nights, and fishing trips.

The fellowship home employs registered nurses (RNs), licensed practical nurses (LPNs),

certified medication aids (CMAs), certified nursing assistants (CNAs), and personal care

assistants (PCAs). These employees are there to help each resident with the care they need. In

addition, there is an on-call system and other accommodations in an emergency. The

management also consists of the Executive Director, Lauren Sims, the Administrator, Rosemary

Bowen, and the Associate Administrator, Amber Strader. Each of these managers has become an

excellent professional contact, and I have learned a lot from them over the past few months.

Description of Experiences:

I had many different roles as an intern. All of the interns were given various tasks and

responsibilities that we could help with or work on each day. Some of these tasks included

working at the front desk and assisting the receptionist job of answering phone calls, delivering

mail, and helping the administrators in any way we could. Some other jobs were helping at

mealtimes. This responsibility included getting all the residents their plates when they came to

the dining room for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. It also involved getting the room service orders

to the residents who ordered food in their room. After the residents are done eating, we also help

clear the tables and clean up after them.

If I was not helping at the front desk or in the dining room, you could probably find me at

the assisted living or memory care nurses station or in the activities room. In March, all interns

were officially hired as personal care assistants (PCAs). This was very beneficial because we

could pick up shifts when they became available, and we could take on more responsibilities as

interns. As PCAs, we are responsible for helping the residents go to the bathroom, shower, make
their beds, get dressed, and move from place to place. The majority of the residents do not need

this type of assistance. However, a handful of residents do need this type of assistance. Helping

with activities was also another role we took on as interns. Some of the different activities we

helped with included crafts, happy hour, and field trips.

Some of the most fun and exciting roles included helping with happy hour and the

different activities. I enjoyed socializing with all of the residents and getting to know them

better. Happy hour was always a fun way to see the residents interact and enjoy their time

together. Some of the most rewarding and fulfilling experiences I have had at my internship

include learning about the role of a PCA. I enjoyed working as a PCA because I was able to see

the type of work PCAs and CNAs do first-hand. These employees make these facilities run

smoothly, and the work they do is vital. While this is not the field I will be entering, I will still be

working with PCAs and CNAs as a health administrator, so I am glad I will be able to

understand what they do now personally since I have experienced it myself.

I was able to experience a lot of different tasks throughout this semester, and there are

some tasks I enjoyed doing more than others. For example, while I wanted to work as a PCA and

see their side of work, I would have liked to do less clinical work than I did. I do not think there

is anything wrong with us being asked to do more clinical responsibilities like showering and

helping residents use the bathroom. Still, as a public health student, I was not expecting it.

Perception and Evaluation of the Internship:

My internship did meet my expectations. Going into this semester, I expected to learn

more about the day-to-day life of working in long-term care facilities, and I expected to see and

gain a lot of first-hand work experience. I can happily say that these expectations were fulfilled. I

am delighted that I could complete my internship at an assisted living/memory care home since
this is the type of setting I want to work in for my career. I have worked at long-term care

facilities before, but it was not the same experience that I had at the fellowship home. The

fellowship home has been very open and accepting of ideas and activities the interns have come

up with over the past few months. For example, we have created "Manicure Mondays," which

has become a permanent activity that the residents love. The staff loves to have our input on

different ideas, and it is clear that they care about what we think and respect us.

Our supervisors have been very supportive and have shown me what outstanding leadership

looks like. They always reassured us about how much they appreciated our help, and they made

sure we were not made to do anything we were uncomfortable with. There are not many things

that could have been done to improve my experience because overall, it was very beneficial, and

I learned a lot. However, one thing that could have been improved was that the facility always

seemed short-staffed. Sometimes a lot of responsibility would fall on the interns because a CNA

did not show up for work or the staff did not know we were only interns. I am not sure if the

supervisors have a conversation with the rest of the team to explain that we are only interns and

public health interns, not nursing interns. I cannot blame the rest of the staff for assuming we are

nursing students because we wear scrubs every day. Despite these possible changes, I still had an

extraordinary experience, and I am glad I completed my internship at the fellowship home. I

would recommend this internship site to another student. Every time I came to work, I was

surrounded by the nicest people, and I think the type of people you are with can make or break

one's experience.

Internship Preparedness:

I feel like I was academically prepared well for this internship experience. I felt

especially prepared in the patient care and cultural competence areas. I am glad I took the
community health course last semester because that class prepared me the most for a hands-on

work experience. We were taught about vulnerable populations, patient care, and competence in

community health. We also had to earn service learning hours which was an excellent way to

prepare us for how many hours we had to get for our internship. One area I felt the least prepared

for was the clinical side of things, but I am a public health student, not a nursing student, so it is

understandable that I was not as prepared to help with these types of tasks.

I do not think there is anything GCSU could have done to prepare me more for my

internship. I think this type of actual work experience is something you can never be thoroughly

equipped for until you are thrown into it. I think I took all the suitable classes, and I have had the

best mentors to prepare me for this internship.

Internship Performance:

I have gained a lot of different skills through this internship. Working at the fellowship

home, I have developed critical thinking and problem-solving skills. Often, a situation will occur

where you need to use on-the-spot thinking or act quickly to help a resident who needs help.

Throughout my internship, there have been many situations where I am assisting a resident in

their room. I do not always have the opportunity to call for a CNA to help me, so I use my

common sense and try to make the best out of whatever situation I am in, and I try to help the

resident as best as I can. I have also gained skills by working at the front desk and answering the

phone. Sometimes I get phone calls where I can answer their questions on my own, or I can

figure out how to help them without calling one of the administrators. I love when I can help

them on my own because I get a feeling of accomplishment and feel very capable of my

communication skills.
 I have been delighted with all of our assignments throughout our internship. I have

completed and worked hard on all of my assignments. I have improved my time management

skills this semester because I have been balancing my internship assignments with my work

hours, but I also have two other courses on top of my internship course. To say it has been a

challenging semester would be an understatement. However, I am glad I took on this challenge

because I have been able to prove to myself and others that I am capable of many things. Once I

set my mind to something, I can do it well.

One skill that I will continue to work on after graduation would be my teamwork skills. I

enjoy working in a team. However, I struggle with my patience. Sometimes I like to get tasks

done quicker than others, and I like being very proactive about assignments and deadlines. But,

in the end, I am always happy to have worked in a team because everyone's ideas are essential

and benefit the overall outcome of whatever tasks we are working on.

Personal/Professional Insights/Benefits:

I have gained many personal and professional benefits from completing my internship at

the Fellowship Home at Meriwether. My career goals are to work as a health administrator in a

long-term care facility, and because of this, the fellowship home could not have been a perfect

internship site. I have made so many professional contacts that will benefit me in my future

career. I have also made many professional skills by working at the front desk, in the office, and

helping the administrators. I told the administrators early on that I wanted to go into the same

field as them, so they have been accommodating by giving me tips and advice for my future.

I gained many professional insights into the field of healthcare administration. Still, I

have also gained many insights into working with the elderly and working in the long-term care

industry. Before coming into this internship, I knew I was interested in working with the elderly
population. I can now say that I feel confident in my decision to go into the long-term care

industry. Working in senior care is an underappreciated field, and this industry needs more

people. They need more people who care about the population to come in and help as best as

they can. I am excited to go into graduate school with the first-hand experience gained from this

internship. I feel confident and prepared, all due to this internship.