This summer, I was lucky enough to intern at the Posey County Health Department with Kelli Goedde, RN. During this time, we set out to increase our involvement in the overall health of our community through a variety of different clinics, programs, and events.
Beforehand, I was honestly unsure about what our health department is involved with and what they do on a day-to-day basis. Under the guidance of Kelli Goedde, RN, our Public Health Nurse, and Kellie Waller, our case manager, I quickly learned the importance of our health departments. The crux of our time was spent vaccinating people who do not have insurance, filing animal bites, reviewing lead cases, and setting up new programs to assist those in other areas of need. These included the PEACH program, which aims to assist new parents with their babies up to one year of age, the Narcan Grant Program, which allows us to provide county schools and departments with available naloxone, and the Prevention Services Program, which will increase laboratory testing for STIs such as syphilis, HIV, HCV, and monkeypox. These programs will hopefully be fully enacted by the fall/winter of this year. Specifically, I was tasked with completing the application for the Narcan Grant, which was accepted, and detailing the department’s policies and procedures for the Prevention Services Program.
In addition to working on these programs, I also took part in many clinics that were set up around the county to help teach new parents about proper car seat assembly and to conduct vital signs for the elderly. I was taught to measure heart rate, blood pressure, sinus rhythm, oxygen saturation, and blood sugar, and lead two of these clinics with these skills. I was also able to learn about TB testing and urine-based STI testing as well as become certified in CPR and Stop The Bleed.
Overall, this experience was especially valuable and incredibly fun. I highly recommend this internship to anyone interested in the medical field, especially one involving work in public health. I would like to personally thank Kelli Goedde, Kellie Waller, Dr. Kyle Rapp, Libby Kern, Cheryl Reich, and Cindy Reagan for an amazing, memorable, and informative summer, as well as all Wabash sponsors for making this spectacular internship possible.
