Overall Goal of Internship
Interning at Divine Savior Healthcare, specifically with their employee and community wellness departments, was a rewarding and intriguing experience. Both departments allowed me to utilize my skills and knowledge I gained from my education experience at UW- Stevens Point. I was able to work many on community and employee events centered around wellness movements. A major component of my internship was performing health screenings. Below is a picture of me in the community taking free blood pressures at a local, monthly event at the Portage Middle School.
As stated above, the majority of my internship was performing health screenings that included height and weight, along with a screening that included blood pressure, fasting HDL, LDL, total cholesterol, glucose and triglycerides. Additionally, while taking blood pressures, I was able to help educate individuals on what their numbers meant. Furthermore, I used a Cholestech machine to inform individuals about their cholesterol and glucose. After receiving their numbers, I would sit down with them and review their results. If necessary, we would discuss ways to help guide their numbers into the desired range. Throughout my internship, I also wrote newsletters, made employee wellness modules, and assisted in ‘Play Ball’ (their movement challenge during the summer). The goal of the challenge was to log 380,000 steps within six weeks. It took participants on a historic trip to visit ten of the most beloved ballparks in the United States.
Objectives
- Behavior Change:
- Assist with a work-site wellness Ready Set Lose, weight loss competition for a group of 8 employees by coordinating group meetings, group workouts, handouts, tips, and recipes to motivate employees to lose weight.
- Plan and implement a Holiday Weight Loss Challenge for employees; includes motivational meetings and/or handouts to encourage behavior change.
- Assist with the weekly meetings for employee weight management group called “Let’s Lose It.” This includes developing handouts, individual coaching, biometric measurement, and assisting individuals with a weight loss plans.
- Assist with coordination of exercise classes to promote fitness as a lifestyle choice.
- Plan and implement activities and challenges for the Employee Wellness Program that result in behaviors that foster decreasing risk factors.
- Assist with employee Health Risk Assessments, both on and off site, to provide education regarding “know your number” as a behavior motivation tool.
- Assist with planning and implementing the annual Women’s Night Out health promotion event that assists women in finding a path to health preventative practices that will enhance the quality of their lives.
- Develop an obesity prevention program for the area schools to engage students in healthy preventative activities.
- Develop online health education modules for employees on at least 2 subjects.
- Assist with planning and implementing a Breast Cancer Awareness Event.
- Plan and oversee the Poker Walk challenge for employees that encourage an active lifestyle using aerobic activity.
- Take blood pressures at the community blood pressure screening events to identify individuals at risk for high blood pressure and to provide awareness of the health implications regarding hypertension.
- Assist with community cholesterol screening events to identify individuals that need to take action to decrease their chances of developing heart disease or experiencing a heart attack.
- Promotion and Marketing:
- Assist with advertising all health promotion programs and events offered through the Education Department.
- Promote the Education Department’s community programs with a booth at the Women’s Night Out event.
- Assist with the coordination, implementation and advertising of Divine Savior’s blood drives for employees and the community.
- Assist with creating and distributing the Education Department’s quarterly health promotion newsletter.
- Assist with updating the Education Department’s community education programs on the Divine Savior website.
- Assist with promoting the Women’s Night Out event through the website, newsletter, newspaper, radio, flyers, and emails.
- Develop flyers and emails for employees promoting wellness activities.
- Develop healthy eating materials to be displayed in the café bulletin board.
- Create a healthy eating booth to be displayed in the Tivoli (Nursing Home) Bistro.
- Assist the Health Resources Coordinator with promotion of on-site health promotion services for businesses.
- Develop a press release for the Health & Wellness section of newspaper.
- Assist with the innovative online social media format for employee wellness engagement called the “Keas Wellness Challenge.”
- Organizational:
- Assist in orientation with advising new employees about the health promotion opportunities available with the employee wellness program.
- Attend Speaker’s Bureau committee planning meetings.
- Attend Employee Wellness committee planning meetings.
- Assist with coordinating and attend in-service trainings.
- Work with the Health Resources Coordinator regarding business meetings to promote expansion of wellness services for their employees.
- Analyze the results and implications of completed participant evaluation forms for community health promotion programs.
- Evaluate health risk assessment aggregate data regarding actions to be taken.
- Sign employees up for their Health Risk Assessment appointments.
- Create information packets for the employee wellness program participants.
Contact
Marla Ruth, RN, MSN
Director of Education
2817 New Pinery Rd, Portage WI 53901
Milwaukee, WI 53202
mruth@dshealthcare.com
608-745-6407
Hours
Minimum of 11 weeks, 36 hours/week for at least 400 hours total
Stipend
None
UW-Stevens Point Students Who Completed Internship
- Jenna Varner, Summer 2018
- Lynn Marshall, Fall 2013