Internship in Community Health

Examples of Daily Journal Entry and Format

Example 1:

Journal--Week 7

April 17 (8:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.) 7 hours

I finished the newsletter for the county! A copy of this is enclosed. I handed it in to Lori and she thought it looked fine.

I corrected some information on the Fitness News newsletter for the Exercise Challenge before it went out to all the participants.

I observed and assisted with car seat inspections for the Car Seat Clinic at the Government Center. It was interesting to see how they inspect them. It's one thing to read the specifications and quite another to see it for oneself.

April 20 (8:00 a.m. to 4:45 p.m.) 8.75 hours with no lunch break

I dropped off the Mom-o-Grams to Crystal Cabinets in Princeton on my way here this morning.

I typed up my notes for the osteoporosis presentation today at the Senior Center.

Judy and I met Jim at Becker High School for the Citizenship Project. Judy and I left mid-way through the class to go to the Senior Center.

I gave my presentation on osteoporosis. I didn't feel qualified to be talking about all aspects of osteoporosis, but I think it went well. There was a lady who used to be a nurse and she had a few tough questions with which Judy needed to help me. One question was a surprise to her as well! The people were great; they thanked me for coming, and no one fell asleep, which I guess is pretty rare! If I do this again, I hope I do it on a subject with which I feel more comfortable.

Lori told me that I needed the next newsletter and recipe insert done for the Exercise Challenge by Wednesday, so I worked on that for the rest of the day.

April 21 (8:10 a.m. to 4:40 p.m.) 8.5 hours with no lunch

I worked on the newsletter for the Exercise Challenge until we left for Becker High School.

Jim and I served as resources for the students who were trying to finish the projects. I have to stop myself before I give the students more information than I should. There is a fine line between appropriate and inappropriate help!

I typed and copied the agenda for the mock board presentations for students at Becker on Thursday. I got all the packets together for the board members as well.

I finished the newsletter for the Exercise Challenge and started on recipe inserts for week three.

April 22 (9:30 a.m. to 4:45 p.m.) 7.25 hours without lunch

I needed to go to the chiropractor this morning and I also dropped off my application, resume, and cover letter to Mille Lacs County. They posted it last week and sent me the information, but it didn't get to me until the weekend, so I had to drive it there to make it by the deadline rather than chance it in the mail!

I finished the recipe inserts for week three of the Exercise Challenge. A copy of this plus a copy of the newsletter is enclosed.

I went to Becker High School alone today and served as a sounding board and resource for the students. The groups were doing last minute preparations and I spoke with each group quite a bit. It was great to see them prepare for the "big day" and to be someone that they could depend on for advice.

Another Car Seat Clinic was still in session when I returned to the Government Center, so I spent some time observing this (about 45 minutes).

I had a brief meeting with Judy regarding the presentations at Becker. We had some last minute preparations as well.

I got a call from Mille Lacs County and they want to see me for an interview tomorrow morning!

I also met with Kara and Vonna regarding interviewing for jobs. Vonna is also having an interview tomorrow and we exchanged notes on all the possible questions. It was very helpful to talk about it. Kara has been interviewed for the exact same job just last fall, so she was an extremely valuable resource for me.

April 23 (10:50 to 4:35 p.m.) 5.75 hours with no lunch break

I had my interview this morning at 9:30 and then I needed to go to SCSU to sign something before I graduate. I met Judy at Becker City Hall for the Citizenship Project presentations. The students looked so nice! I was impressed with how they carried themselves and I almost felt like a proud parent! One of the groups had only two presenters to begin with and one of those students didn't show up, so the other student took on the entire presentation without part of the information! I was very proud of her. She struggled with the entire project, but I think the teacher will give her credit . . .

Example 2:

Monday, July 6, 1998
8:00 - 12:00, 1:00 - 5:00 = 8 hours

Today I had an office hour from 8:00-9:00. In this time I finished reviewing my TSE material. At about 8:30 Mary got together with the three of us and talked about our skin cancer presentation. We had to put together an introduction about skin cancer and present it to the whole group. There were to be a total of about 50 people. We thought that skin cancer would be appropriate for this age group since they spend a lot of time in the sun and prevention is the key. So we put together pamphlets and Beck and Shawna put the speech together. I couldn't participate in the speech formulation because I worked in the library from 9:00-12:00. The library was rather slow this morning so I practiced my TSE speech about 4 times. I had worked for 4 hours on Saturday putting together everything I was going to say and making myself some notes. Mary thought that would be a good time to make up some of the hours I will miss because of the 4th Holiday and an afternoon I have scheduled off. At 1:30 we left for RCTC (Rochester Community & Technical College). When we got there I went and set up. I put the movie into the VCR and I wrote all the terms on the board. I was surprised at the amount of people to whom we would be presenting. There were about 25 girls and 15 boys and about 5 mentors. We presented the skin cancer information and that took about 5 to 10 minutes. We then broke into groups of boys and girls and I took the boys into a different room. I handed out the folders that I had prepared. They had information about TSE and STD's. At the beginning of my presentation there were a few giggles and smirks. I could tell that a couple of them didn't want to be there but there were a few guys I could tell were truly interested. It went much better than I had anticipated. I asked if anyone had any questions and none of them did. A couple of times the two mentors made comments that made the guys talk a little more. Overall the presentation went really well. Mary was very pleased with it. We ended up getting back around 4:00. After we had gotten back I had to put all of my materials and visual aids away. At about 4:30 I did today's journal entry.

Tuesday, July 7, 1998
8:00 - 4:00 = 8 hours

Today from 8:00 to 9:00 I had an office hour. In this time I figured out my timecard because I needed to hand that in today. I am filling out a different timecard to hand in to you at school and you will receive that every four weeks. The one the Mayo Clinic uses is very confusing. At 9:00 I went out into the library until 1:00. It was quite busy. I spent the whole time waiting on patients and really had no time to work on any of the slips. At 12:00 Becky and I went to a Cancer Prevention seminar. It was a really informative session. The subject was about all the internal/external causes of cancers, went over the most prevalent type of cancers, screening techniques of these cancers, and risk factors. Most of this was old news to me but there was a lot of valuable information. We even received a certificate of attendance. There is another session on August 4th that I hope I can attend as well. From 1:00 to 2:00 I worked on odds and ends and started typing my morning part of my journal. At 2:00 until 3:30 I attended the menopause class. I asked Mary if it would be OK if I left a little early today because I had to meet with someone at 4:00. She said that was fine. I had a lunch meeting, so that made up for that.