Why a Health Administration Internship?

Asa B Wilson,Albert P Nowak

doi:10.22158/rhs.v4n3p142

Abstract

A healthcare administration internship is discussed as an important factor in academia’s response to criticism that graduates are not well prepared for job challenges. Employers contend that many graduates have limited critical thinking strengths; a cognitive attribute that manifest itself in needed workplace skills.This article summarizes the conceptual framework and organizational features that, over a seven-year period, fostered the establishment of a statewide undergraduate health administration internship program. The internship is embedded in an AUPHA-certified health administration curriculum in a Midwest state university. The internship is discussed as a part of the health administration curriculum and as an experiential bridge from the university’s didactic world to the health service work environment. Enhancing interns’ critical thinking is the internship goal; an outcome pursued through experiential learning in the placement site and augmented with structured input from the university. Internship projects, assignments, project execution, and, preceptor guidance continuously augment the internship’s cycle of experiential learning. As the internship matured, mutual benefits between the program and participating facilities emerged. These returns are discussed under the headings of: a) employment support, b) research collaboration, c) networking opportunities, d) promotional outreach, and e) outcome-assessment research. These returns continuously reinforce value for all internship stakeholders.

Highlights

An emerging, escalating criticism of academia is its seeming limited capacity to prepare graduates to compete in and contribute to the world of work. These criticisms are prompted by a growing gap between the academy and organizations needing work-ready graduates
The more vehement critics of academia and its recently educated contend that these trends result in an epidemic of substandard writing skills, marginal vocabulary mastery, limited technology capabilities, weak software application experience, discipline specific terminology shortcomings, and unproven critical thinking. 1.1 Contrasting Examples a major challenge is designing ways to build a bridge from the university to the workplace; a transition experience that enables students to leave increasingly informed about future performance expectations and less naïve about their chosen industry
This is especially true for health administration students because healthcare organizations are demanding trained entry-level candidates. Such an expectation is furthered by the fact that a majority of individuals entering health care are professionally trained and credentialed or licensed

Summary

Why a Health Administration Internship?

Nowak Department of Health Care Administration, Methodist University, Fayetteville, NC, USA 2 Division of Health Administration, Central Michigan University, Mount Pleasant, MI, USA * Asa B.

Introduction

Conclusion