In this episode, we highlight the impactful journey of high school and college students through internships at Sanford Health. It features discussions with Nick Tshudy (HHS '21), a nursing student and former high school intern, and Allison Hutchinson, a senior career development consultant at Sanford Health, showcasing the value and transformative power of internships in healthcare.
In this episode, we highlight the impactful journey of high school and college students through internships at Sanford Health. It features discussions with Nick Tshudy (HHS '21), a nursing student and former high school intern, and Allison Hutchinson, a senior career development consultant at Sanford Health, showcasing the value and transformative power of internships in healthcare.
Transcript
00:00:03 JoAnne
We're giving you more than just the 411. This is the Harrisburg 412 podcast coming to you from Southern Sioux Falls and Harrisburg, SD.
00:00:18 Breanne
Welcome back 412 listeners, Breanne Lynch, career and education coordinator for the Harrisburg School District. We are going to jump into another success story as we celebrate CTE month today.
00:00:30 Breanne
I have Nick and Allison with us and I will let them go ahead and introduce themselves.
00:00:35 Nick
Hello, thanks for having me. My name is Nick. Tschudy, I am a third semester nursing student at the University of South Dakota.
I was a member of the high School internship program here at Harrisburg High School, and now I'm currently scheduled for another internship as a nurse at Sanford this summer.
00:00:56 Allison
And I'm Allison Hutchinson. I'm a senior career development consultant at Sanford Health, and I'm really excited to share our internship experience with Harrisburg students.
00:01:07 Breanne
Well, thanks for being here. We appreciate it, Nick, what year did you graduate?
00:01:11 Nick
May 2021.
00:01:13 Breanne
May 2021, so I'm going to ask you a couple of questions.
00:01:17 Breanne
After you graduate from high school, what? What did you do that summer?
00:01:21 Nick
That summer I had a job lined up at Sanford2000, which I previously was an intern on that same floor, and that's what I worked.
00:01:31 Breanne
All summer, alright. And since then you've been at school.
00:01:34 Nick
Yes, I've been attending University of South Dakota. I'm in the nursing program now and I will graduate in December.
00:01:42 Breanne
Fantastic. So Allison, you are a aspire by Sanford employee, which means what? What's your day job?
00:01:49 Allison
I like to tell students and parents that my work is to help students find their work, and so I facilitate the internship program at the SanfordUSD Medical Center as well as do classroom visits and tours and career exploration programs. Anything to help mainly high school students, but also sometimes Middle school students and elementary students explore the wild, wild world of healthcare careers.
00:02:15 Breanne
Yeah, listeners, just so you know, Allison is our gateway to all things healthcare career. So Sanfordand many of their organizational branches help support learner Interest day in our District, middle school programming. And then of course our high school internship program. In addition to course work.
00:02:31 Breanne
And athletic training opportunities in the Harrisburg school districts. So we're just really glad you're here. We're going to jump into some of our questions. So, Nick, you were a high school intern, which means that's how I got to know you best. You were one of the largest high school internship cohorts that we've ever had, in addition to healthcare. So that's pretty exciting. Can you give us just maybe a recap of what the high school internship experience is like for healthcare?
00:02:56 Nick
I sure can. So overall is a pretty positive experience. I remember coming into class like once a week with Miss Lynch and started there where we created cover letter and resume where we would apply for an internship at different Sanfordunits and I was lucky enough to land a spot at surgical Cardiovascular Unit 2000. And from there I was able to go to the hospital a couple days a week where I would follow around a patient care assistant or nursing assistant.
And I would be able to see what their life was like and what their day-to-day jobs were. And I would be gaining a big insights into the hospital life.
00:03:43 Breanne
That's great. So in addition to your time on the floor, Allison, learners are able to participate in exploratory time. Can you share with that a little bit?
00:03:51 Allison
With our listeners, I'd love to. So exploratory time is something that we're really proud of every other week during an internships experience for two hours in the afternoon, meet together and have a chance to talk with other healthcare professionals that maybe the interns wouldn't necessarily see or talk to on their floors. And so we have surgical services come in and we learn about sterile processing and surge tech. We'll get some lab time with medical lab technology.
00:04:21 Allison
Just we will hear from behavioral health specialists. And so we've toured the Harrisburg clinic. That was a really exciting time too. So in addition to learning skills and being in the environment like Nick talked about, we're also really excited that we can share other healthcare experiences with the interns that come to Sanford Health.
00:04:46 Breanne
So we've had some questions, you know, around the district, from community partners and stakeholders, high school internship. Is it worth it? Is there a value there?
00:04:55 Breanne
From your lens, Allison, what is the benefit? What is the value versus the work that a high school intern maybe brings into the healthcare organization?
00:05:04 Allison
Yeah, I can speak to that. So we are really passionate about as much as possible giving our high school interns the full work related experience. And so that goes as far as as hiring them on as interns, as employees. And so they go through the whole application process.
00:05:25 Allison
Like Nick talked about making your resume, we interview them so they get that experience as well of professional interview.
00:05:33 Allison
They go through a full orientation as well as all of our online learning classes. Our success center and so they really are getting that full new employee orientation experience as well as you know wherever they end up being placed, whether it's in an inpatient or a clinic role.
00:05:52 Allison
We also have the clinical, but maybe not patient facing roles directly wherever they end up working with our healthcare professionals, they are getting an immersive experience. And so we're really happy to be able to offer that we know.
00:06:11 Allison
That the earlier that students can start to see themselves in the role, experience the environment, they're just able to make more helpful choices down the road and and immediately even right after high school too. So I maybe selfishly wish that maybe my own kids and and other people's.
00:06:31 Allison
Kids could two could just experience an internship in the sense that you are part time as a student and your part time as an employee and having those two roles work together is really the provide such a huge benefit.
00:06:45 Breanne
Yeah, you bring up some really good points. So, Nick, why did you go down the internship path? What was?
00:06:51 Nick
Well, I liked how she talked about that professional standpoint of it. Personally, I never had a job like a real job before this internship. I was at the time. So that was really good for me to get some experience having a real responsibilities and really expanding my professional attributes.
00:06:59 Breanne
You were busy being an athlete, right? Yeah.
00:07:11 Breanne
I would, I would categorize you like when you kind of came into my class. I didn't know you. Well, it's a big high school, right? You're kind of shy. Come in. Sit down. Head down. Do the work. Don't cause problems. Are you the same in the workplace or did you have to navigate how to be Nick at work versus Nick at school?
00:07:30 Nick
At work, it's a different, different ball field. For sure. I just like getting my stuff done in school, but in the workforce you can kind of have fun with it, meet new people, get out there, talk to patients.
00:07:43 Breanne
Let's talk about that communication and relationship building. I think that's something that's really important for me as an internship coordinator. And I know Allison as well, just helping students learn how to best communicate early and often so.
00:07:46 Nick
Sure, sure.
00:07:56 Breanne
Talk about how communication played a role in those relationships. Maybe that you've built with patients along the.
00:08:01 Nick
Definitely. I was probably a little scared going into it as a young 18 year old my first time, but now I feel a lot more confident going to the patients rooms for sure.
00:08:04 Breanne
That's good.
00:08:12 Nick
You don't really know what to say to them all the time when you're young, but.
00:08:16 Nick
You gotta definitely talk with a lot of the nurses and you'll get that throughout the job experience. Through this internship. I think it just comes, comes with it. You might not be a pro right away, but after a few weeks you definitely learn and pick up on how things work.
00:08:31 Nick
And you can go on from there.
00:08:33 Breanne
So beyond communication relationship building, are there other skills you think you grew throughout the internship experience?
00:08:41 Nick
For sure will all the PCT skills I'm sure.
00:08:46 Breanne
So for the listeners that maybe don't know, we're living in a world of acronyms, healthcare, education. Well, that's OK what's a PCT?
00:08:53 Nick
Patient Care tech, also known as Nurse Aid, nursing assistant, lots of different names.
00:08:59 Breanne
So inside the healthcare bubble, just like education and every other industry, we have our acronyms, right?
00:09:04 Breanne
Fantastic. So you've been at USC for three years.
00:09:08 Breanne
How's that been?
00:09:10 Nick
Fun fun definitely was well prepared for it.
00:09:12 Breanne
So you feel like your Harrisburg high school education puts you in a good spot.
00:09:16 Nick
It sure did.
00:09:17 Breanne
Fantastic. So we brought you back because this is an episode about success stories, right? So let's talk a little bit about the internship you applied to and what your new internship experience will look like at look like as a college student.
00:09:31 Nick
Yes, this summer I have an internship lined up through the same spot that I started my high school internship through three years ago.
00:09:39 Nick
So that definitely I've been working there, so that's definitely probably how I landed the spot, but.
00:09:45 Nick
It's pretty competitive and through the work of course, work and my summer job, I landed internship there.
00:09:56 Breanne
Allison, do you have any insights maybe on tips, tricks with students, high school or collegiate, looking at that Sanfordinternship application process?
00:10:04 Allison
Right.
00:10:06 Allison
I think applying to an internship is similar to applying to any role and so advice that I would give is become familiar with the organization or group that you're applying to. What is their mission, vision values and so becoming familiar with that? Of course Nick experienced that.
00:10:26 Allison
For himself in the the high school internship role, and so having examples and stories to share during an interview or application directly related to Sanford Health, I think was a really great bonus.
00:10:41 Allison
I think when you're preparing to apply or you're even thinking, you know, maybe I want to do this really thinking about how will this impact you, but also how will this impact the, you know the potential patients that you'll see and also the coworkers that you'll be working with, it's it's so great to work in an environment where you trust people where you know that they're giving their best where you know that everyone is supporting every anyone else and you really should think long and hard about what it what. It will be like for you to to join that team and to, you know, bring your your best self to work too.
00:11:20 Breanne
You've said many times Stanford's like a city, right? If we're going to compare the different occupations that are available, internships, volunteer opportunities, careers, there's something for everybody.
00:11:30 Breanne
Inside of the Sanford healthcare enterprise, which I think is just really exciting. We've had interns in other areas beyond direct patient care. And so this the possibilities are endless, right. So you can start as a high school intern or even a high school volunteer in some areas and then you can be like Nick, you can come back and continue to work and then be able to expand your skill sets through a collegiate.
00:11:55 Allison
Those success stories mean so much to us, too, because it's great to be a part of a student story, and we think about it as a community benefit, of course, but also.
00:12:07 Allison
The fact that Nick already knows his way around the Medical Center and the fact that he knows all the acronyms and he understands how our you know, processes work. He's just that much farther ahead in the internship and then as a an employee too and.
00:12:25 Allison
To your point that there are so many different career options in healthcare and additionally we want students to know that you can ladder up in your career and nursing especially is full of leadership opportunities. You can go up, you can go to the side. There's so many different ways that you can.
00:12:45 Allison
Start as a in a nursing role and then continue your whole career, always trying new things and you know expanding and challenging yourself.
00:12:55 Breanne
Yeah. So different expansion opportunities. Can you speak maybe to some of the resources or programs available to people like Nick that are maybe currently working inside of the SanfordEnterprise part time?
Or students that maybe are looking for part time work and then some of the opportunities they.
00:13:11 Allison
Have I will speak to this as in my current role, but also as a parent of teenagers, so we're all in the same boat here.
00:13:20 Allison
Sanford Health absolutely wants to support students in their career exploration and a future employment. And so just like many employers in our area, we sponsor Bill Dakota Scholarship students. We're so happy to find great applicants in all of the healthcare roles that we have available. So that's definitely something that I would promote when I go to classroom visits. I joke that I have a bill to go to tattoo because I just talk about it so much and I want. I want everyone to know about it as an option.
00:13:48 Breanne
Yeah, you too. All the time. It's important.
00:13:53 Allison
Sanford Health also has additional sponsorships in healthcare roles, maybe outside of the the build Dakota options too, as well as scholarship opportunities for our employees. We have financial assistance available as well, too kind of on an ongoing basis and so.
00:14:12 Allison
We really want to make as many equitable on ramps as we can for.
00:14:19 Allison
To really see themselves in the role and then find a pathway that allows them to achieve their career.
00:14:25 Breanne
Goals. I love how you called it an on ramp. We've talked in a couple of other or other episodes we've recorded with some guests for CTE month about on ramps to different things, whether it's apprenticeships, internships, part time work, whatever that may look like. So Nick, what guidance or tips do you have?
00:14:40 Breanne
Or maybe high school learners considering an internship or considering CNA certification. What advice do you have for tips.
00:14:49 Nick
I'll say do it. Try it out. Can't knock it till you try it. I think it's a great experience and I would recommend it for all high school learners, but.
00:14:59 Breanne
Is it worth the work because we know it's not easy.
00:15:03 Nick
100%.
00:15:05 Breanne
That's great. I love it.
00:15:07 Nick
I'd say get out of your comfort zone and try it out. Definitely help.
00:15:11 Breanne
Fantastic thinking about future plans. So after you do your internship in the summer, you'll have a year left of school.
00:15:20 Nick
A semester left will graduate December 2024.
00:15:21 Breanne
A semester left.
00:15:23 Breanne
Wonderful. And then after that, what are your career goals or aspirations?
00:15:28 Nick
I'm hoping to land a job in ICU or ER at Sanford, preferably following my graduation.
00:15:38 Breanne
Fantastic. Allison. I have a couple more things for you. You know, speaking from your career development consultant lens, are there stories or things that just warm your heart that our viewers should know about the internship experience?
00:15:52 Allison
OK, so sitting here with Nick, hearing his story like makes me teary eyed for sure.
00:15:56 Allison
There. So I every now and then our leader, my leader, asks like what makes you feel good about your job or what kind of recognition do you appreciate? And honestly, I don't need any type of recognition or award or anything. But hearing that students are using the things that we're working so hard to provide for them in a way that.
00:16:17 Allison
Expands their options and and makes them feel like they can share their talents with the world. Is just the best thing ever. I also love hearing you know, what Nick said about just take a risk and go for it. There are only there's some environments where you can take safe risks and I am really such a proponent of that as well where you can try something and actually have an opportunity to mess up.
00:16:50 Allison
Or not know the right answer and if you can do that in an environment where you're supported where you have people there who will teach you and encourage you and coach you into.
00:17:00 Allison
The new way of doing things. I just am so grateful that we have opportunities like this for students where you come in and it is super scary to talk to adults that you've never seen before. But I feel like and Nick spoke to this by the end of the internship. It's it's magic. It feels so good to.
00:17:20 Allison
To see and hear the high school interns say, you know, I could have never have done what I do now. At the end I could have never done that at the beginning and just to see their growth and confidence. I think one thing that's changed in our society is that a lot of times high school students don't have the opportunity to talk with adults in a professional manner, and this internship 100% provides that opportunity in so many ways and and I'm really proud of that. And I am so grateful to work for an organization that allows this program to continue and and be supported.
00:17:57 Allison
For so many of reasons and and particularly that that professional communication and respectful communication between students and and adults in a a healthcare setting is just really one of the the best things that I take from this.
00:18:11 Breanne
Yeah. Yeah. And I don't think we can discount the people, right? So the people you met on 2000 that you continue to have a relationship with the people throughout the Sanford Health enterprise that support high school internships and clinical internship experiences, the school district and the school board that we're like, let's jump into this and see if it's an opportunity that we can open some doors for kids.
00:18:32 Breanne
I think that's huge and and I agree with you, Allison, the personal development that we see in people is just awesome. I have hard time finding words to describe how it makes me feel, but watching I would say kids become adults really happens over the course of a semester through an internship.
00:18:52 Nick
I would like to add on to that as a high school intern, you're never really alone, but you have someone that can guide you. Another nursing assistant there with you and helping you try out these new skills and communicate with patients.
00:19:06 Nick
You also have coordinators and nurses that are there for you upon request. So even though it is pretty scary, you also have lots of people that are there for you to help if needed.
00:19:16 Breanne
Yeah. I think, Allison, some calculated risk safe risks, right? It allows you to try some things that are scary, but there's people there to to guide you through the scary part. It's awesome.
00:19:28 Breanne
Well, I thank you both for your time. This has been absolutely great. I do think we need to talk about the Sanford internship celebration, which Allison's a little teary here talking about her feelings, which is wonderful. It means we got to the heart of why these things are so wonderful and great success stories. People like Nick and and members of his cohort doing amazing.
00:19:49 Breanne
But the Sanford internship finale at celebration has really become a a great point of pride, and I love showing up. Allison does a great job, and all of her Sanford counterparts. Putting that on for us and hosting it at their facility. Everybody leaves with my favorite Sanford swig, which is the pizza cutter. So if you are ever able to purchase some things from the Sanford.
00:20:09 Breanne
So or go get yourself a pizza cutter. It's fantastic. Or steal it from your high school intern if you have a a clinical intern.
00:20:17 Breanne
But let's talk about the finale. I mean, we have the option for people to be able to attend online. We love it when people are able to be there in person, but give us the format of that, Allison.
00:20:28 Allison
I appreciate that the chance to talk about this and first of all, thanks to you, Mrs. Lynch, because I think we brainstormed the first finale celebration. I definitely couldn't.
00:20:38 Allison
Pull it off without you. And so now we've got a great template moving forward the intern finale celebration is a chance for what May might be the the three stakeholder groups, maybe 4. Depends on how you slice it. We invite all of the Sanford staff that are involved in the internship program, so we as a small team, meet every other week for 1/2 hour at least as a starting place and so all of our intern task Force team is invited to attend, along with all of the intern supervisors and any of their actual preceptors or buddies like Nick was talking about. They're welcome to attend.
00:21:16 Allison
Well, we are part of the Sanford Lead Center. My team is. And so we're, we're excited to always invite our leadership, education and development leaders to come and share and be a part of the celebration too. Of course, we invite our school personnel, so Mrs. Lynch has attended.
00:21:36 Allison
Every year and and any of the other partner schools that we have wouldn't miss it that it's a must see event.
00:21:41 Allison
Yeah. And I know Mr. Lake has been able to attend in the past too. So our our school partners, I could never do this without the coordination and communication with our school partners and so.
00:21:52 Allison
That's a great group. And then?
00:21:54 Breanne
I'm going to shout out Brady Olsen because he was the speaker for the fall cohort finale for 2023. He gave one of the best motivational messages. So thanks Brady over at Brandon Valley for sharing that message with interns.
00:22:08 Allison
He did great. I was happy to have him there and then of course, the interns themselves come, and we invite their parents.
00:22:15 Allison
And it's just such a meaningful time for me. I want the interns to just feel the love and support that they have in the room. There you go again.
00:22:26 Breanne
So many tears, friends but happy tears, happy tears celebrating success stories.
00:22:27 Allison
I know they're serious. Yeah, yeah.
00:22:31 Allison
Absolutely. And so all the interns come up and share what they think are their next plans as well as maybe some meaningful moments that they've had and and what they'll take away from the internship experience. So we get to hear directly from all of our interns which.
00:22:47 Allison
It's such an awesome experience, it's great to have parents able to attend in person and then you know, you can meet your child, supervisor and chitchat with them. We've had some people I didn't know, you know, meet again or or reconnect that way too, which is exciting. And then it's great for our Sanford staff and and lead team to be able to kind of see the the fruits of our labor in that sense too. So it's a great time and we have cookies. So cookies, swag. I thought it was really special when Doctor Cowells got to meet his son at the end of his internship experience and mom too. But you know, just to see somebody.
00:23:16 Allison
Can’t go wrong.
00:23:28 Breanne
At the top of his profession, be able to watch his son share his defining moments as his internship and just had an amazing experience and then share that publicly in front of his colleagues, I think was.
00:23:39 Allison
Really special. Yeah. There are such great moments like that, too.
00:23:43 Allison
It's great to see when people can continue the family tradition of working in healthcare, and equally it's great to see when people have no family background in healthcare and then begin to see themselves working for health and healing with people too. So everything it.
00:24:04 Allison
Kind of comes together in that finale celebration. It's a really great time.
00:24:08 Breanne
Anything else you want to add either one of you?
00:24:12 Allison
Maybe I would just add this that it's a real honor and honestly blessing to work with Harrisburg High School students. I am so encouraged by the future of healthcare and just the future.
00:24:28 Allison
Of our area seeing and working with students like Nick and his classmates and the cohorts that have come after him, I'm just so.
00:24:38 Allison
So excited for, you know, all the patient care and and excellent patient care that will happen as well as the the opportunities for leadership that we have as well too. I'm so encouraged and make it makes my job easy.
00:24:55 Breanne
Do you have data? Do you know how many interns we've had? Numbers.
00:25:00 Allison
Last cohort, did I tell you? And that I've had 50 high school interns from Harrisburg? Does that seem reasonable? I can go back and look officially too.
00:25:08 Breanne
I didn't know. I do think sweet. I do know, dear listeners, that this spring will be our 10th internship cohort, which is fantastic. I asked Allison, like, do we double down on the finale celebration? Is it, is it like a blowout? Do we get balloons? I don't know what it looks like, but 10 is a pretty big deal.
00:25:10 Allison
Gets 50. You like that safe skill 50.
00:25:28 Breanne
So you know two cohorts a year figuring out what this all looked like from the very beginning, it goes back to our lovely CTE healthcare champion, Miss Lyric Osland, Harrisburg graduate out there changing the world now in social work. So pivoting from career goals and career interest but still staying in the healthcare, taking care of people.
00:25:49 Breanne
World and so we wish lyric the best for being the Guinea pig of the beginning of the Harrisburg High School internship.
00:25:58 Breanne
All right. With that, we will wrap up this episode of CTE Success Stories. Thanks, Nick for joining us. Thanks Allison, as.
00:26:04 Nick
Thanks for having me.
00:26:05 Breanne
Always great to be.
00:26:07 Breanne
Here and we hope you tune in to other success stories as we continue to celebrate CTE month in the Harrisburg School district.