Kaitlyn Brower

April 5, 2023

Reflection Paper

Dr. Kaninjing and Mrs. Dupree

Introduction
My name is Kaitlyn Brower, and I had the opportunity to do my internship at Community Health

Care Systems Inc. in Gordon, Georgia. This company has eighteen different locations across the

middle Georgia. In this company we serve those who are in more rural areas in Georgia. This

company is a nonprofit and a federal qualified health center. What this means is that we are able

to serve everyone whether they have insurance or not. Community Health Care Systems Inc.

Accepts most types of insurances but, they do have a sliding fee scale that will help determine

what your copay will be at your visit. Their mission is to commit to providing quality primary

healthcare to their patients.

The work environment here is quite different in terms of the way that all the different offices run.

There are some offices that are more laid back than others. However, each office has a different

level of volume of patients that they see. However, for the most part the work environment was

very positive and laid back and I really enjoyed my time in each of the offices. For the most part

we serve more of the lower socioeconomically status because of our sliding scale fee that we

offer. The company provides a lot of different services from specialty care to primary care. Some

of the specialty services include OBGYN, mental health, health education and even pediatrics in

our school clinics.

Each office is staffed with at least two providers, medical assistants, and receptionist positions.

For the offices to run smoothly it is important that all these people listed are involved. We see

quite a good number of patients, therefore, to run smoothly it makes things more functionable

and makes the day to day in the office easier. Each provider is assigned a medical assistant which
makes it easier and helps the two of them build a relationship and this will allow them to take

better care of their patients. If the coworkers have a better relationship, it makes it easier for

them to work together to provide better care for their patients.

Description of Experiences

As an intern I had a lot of responsibilities. Even though sometimes it could be stressful I

thoroughly enjoyed my time here at Community Health Care Systems Inc. Some of my

responsibilities included taking patient notes, calling referrals, making flyers, and attending

events. There were a lot more smaller things that were involved as well but, those things were

my main responsibilities during my time at the internship. All these responsibilities made this

internship the fun and exciting semester that it was. The most rewarding and fun part of the

internship was attending the different events that we were able to be a part of. For example, my

favorite thing that we did was the different sports physicals at the schools in the areas where our

offices are located. That seemed to be the most rewarding because we were able to provide free

sports physicals to children in the schools so that they are able to participate in sporting events in

the coming school year.

The thing that I found to be the most challenging is using my creative skills. I was not very

creative when I came into this internship and for all of these different events, we needed to be

able to create flyers for them to market them. However, as the days went on, I got better at using

my creativity and creating flyers for the different events and programs. Also, when I first started,

I was not crazy about the idea of overseeing social media. However, it did get easier, and I

started to enjoy the social media sides of things as well. It was a skill that I think will be

beneficial for future jobs.

The only thing I wish I could have done differently is something that I was not in control of. I

had a class on Wednesday and Fridays therefore, I was not able to go to as many sports physicals

as I would have liked but the ones, I did get to attend I enjoyed them so much!

Perception and Evaluation of the Internship

Quite honestly, I was not sure what to expect when it came to the internship. I knew I would

probably learn a lot out of it and that I would be able to experience new things that I had not

before. However, for the expectations I did have they were met. I learned a lot of new things and

experienced new things to take into the work world with me. I believe that the organization was

super open to my ideas, and they were open to using them. For example, for my project Dr.

Callins was super open to my ideas and she loved every idea I had, we were able to produce an

awesome survey. The project that Dr. Callins and I produced was a super great oppurtunity in the

community around us, we were so excited for this project, and she really was open to my ideas.

The supervision of my supervisor was good. She was able to keep a good relationship with us as

well as keep a professional relationship when there was one needed. Camesha and I had a great

personal relationship. We started to work out together after work, but when it is time to work in

the professional environment, we are able to do that. I am so glad that I got a great supervisor. I

could not imagine working for someone who was not the greatest so in that sense I was very

lucky. In some ways I think that my internship could improve by us having company laptops so

that we were able to do some of the work that needed to be done. It was hard for us to call

referrals or documents on no shows without a laptop. They were able to give us a clinical login,

but it was not beneficial to us because we had no way to use it. The only time we were able to

use the login was when we had desktop computers, which was not very often.
I would always recommend this site to future interns. I think this was a great internship site in

all. I did recommend this site to a student who is doing their internship over the summer. I would

defiantly come back to a setting like this. We serve people in rural communities, and I think that

I have found a passion for rural healthcare so I would defiantly come back to a setting like this.

Internship Preparedness

As far as being academically prepared I feel that I was very prepared in a sense that I already

knew a lot of the things that we would be discussing at the internship. However, the class that I

feel prepared me the most was the Health Promotion and Program class because when planning

different events, I was able to look back and take notes from what I learned in class to apply it

when doing my project as well as planning events. I felt most prepared in this aspect too, I was

able to apply what I learned previously to ensure that events that I helped plan would run

smoothly with the right preparedness.

I never felt unprepared when it came to this internship. I always could tie back something

we learned in classes to different events, meetings, and appointments. I feel as if we had a very

good background before coming into this internship and I feel that we were super prepared to be

successful. Like I said above, Health Promotion and Planning allowed me to be the most

efficient I could be when it came to planning events and conducting the things that I needed to.

Lastly, I think that GCSU has done a great job of preparing their students for the real

world. The only thing that I would say they could improve on would be to maybe implement

where there are not given to the students. I know this is hard to do in a classroom setting,

however, that was a big adjustment for me. I had to learn how to do tasks in a timely manner and

ensure they were done. If something was not done, we may could have missed an event if a form
was not given on time, most of the time they do not give deadlines at work therefore, it was an

adjustment to learn how to do things time efficiently and make sure that everything was done

when it was needed to be.

Internship Performance

As far as learning new things, I was able to take something away every day from when I left

Community health Care Inc. Every day was a new opportunity to learn something new and I was

able to learn and take in new information. I was able to work closely with Camesha Grant, the

health educator at CHCS. She works with patients who are diabetic and prediabetic to work with

them on how to lower their A1C, blood pressure, and cholesterol. I learned a lot of things

through her, even about my own nutrition. She gave some really good tips to her patients that I

was able to take in and use in my own life. We saw patients two days out of the week and did

outreach the other three days so, on those two days of patient care we learned new things about

nutrition every day.

I also learned a lot of new creative skills as well. With this being an outreach position, we had to

create flyers for events that we would be hosting. I had to learn how to use Canva and create

these different flyers throughout the semester. I gained a lot of knowledge throughout my whole

time at the internship, I really enjoyed being able to learn new skills and new things to take with

me when I enter into the work world. One of the main takeaways was the work etiquette,

communication skills, and being a team player. I gained all these skills, and these skills will

allow me to flourish when it is time for me to get a real job. I am so proud of the things that I

have learned, and I cannot wait to take this knowledge to the next level.
I was very satisfied with my perofmance on all my assignments that I did this semester. One of

the main things I was proud of was that I was able to find a good balance of when I was given a

task, I was able to adjust to not having a deadline and getting things done in a timely manner.

With all the work that I did, especially with my project, I was very proud of the work that I did

with Dr. Callins. I really enjoyed conducting these needs assessment and working with her and I

was super proud of my work and all I was able to do in my time here.

There were some things that I feel that I could improve on. These include being a little more on

top of things. For example, if there was no assignment for us to do, maybe step in and ask if

there was anything that we could do or find something to do. That was one of the main things

that I think I could have changed for myself. However, I felt that throughout the internship I was

very efficient and very proud of myself. I think improving that skill will help me when going into

the “real world” so to speak. Everything that I learned and gained throughout the internship will

help me in life after graudation and I cannot wait to see where it takes me!

Personal/Professional Insights/Benefits:

Even though I loved my internship I did learn that this was not something that I could do every

day for the rest of my life. Outreach was something fun and different for a few months but, I

could not see myself still sitting here after ten years doing this. However, the few times I was

able to work with a provider I loved every minute of that. I feel as if this internship pushed me

to go back to nursing school and really helped me find my passion within nursing with some of

the experiences, I was able to do with some of the providers. I was glad I was able to do different

things throughout the internship and did not have to just stick to one specific job and I feel as if

that helped me more than anything.

This internship helped me gain a lot of confidence within a lot of different areas. One of the main

things I gained was patient communication. It had a lot of impact on my personal growth by

learning new things and working with all different types of personalities. This internship gives

someone a great glimpse of what it will be like in the future at a real job. I was able to develop

new skills and knowledge throughout my whole time at Community Health Care Systems Inc.

I was able to gain knowledge of a population that I really like to work with. Our offices were in

rural communities and that is a population that is in more need than other places in my opinion.

Therefore, I would really like to work within a rural community, I feel as if those communities

are underserved. When I become a provider, I would love to come back to this company and

work because I love the environment and the communities that they serve.

In conclusion, I really enjoyed my time here at Community Health. I am so grateful that I was

able to have this opportunity before I finish school to see what it would be like to work nine to

five every day. That is something that not every major is fortunate enough to have and I think it

is great for us to see how things are before we are thrown into the “real world” and have no

experience up under our belt. I am also grateful for my supervisor who helped me gain

knowledge and skills throughout my time here. I feel as if we will continue our friendship after

my time is over here.

I cannot wait for where the future will take me with all the new opportunities that I have been

given. This experience was something that I think everyone should have throughout their years at

Georgia College. This was a great learning experience and allowed me to meet so many new

people and gain new knowledge throughout the semester. I look back and cannot believe how

fast this semester went by, but time flies when you are having fun!