Interning at the Will-Grundy Medical Clinic was an amazing experience to have for this summer. I was able to work on many aspects of clinical operations such as: scribing, shadowing, project implementation, website development, strategic planning, marketing and more. There was a wide variety of projects to work on and each one enabled myself and my fellow interns to learn more about clinic operations. The biggest project I worked on was an in-depth analysis on the “Big Beautiful Bill” i.e. H.R.1, and its implications for public and rural healthcare. This was a multi-week project that touched on public outreach and educations, as well as educating stakeholders and public health officials about what may happen when parts of the bill become law. This project also saw work in both English and Spanish to better serve the community of Joliet Illinois more effectively, as the majority of those seeking healthcare at WGMC are Spanish speaking. This was another aspect that was very unique to what I have experienced in the past, and seeing the problem solving the providers and clinical staff take to enable these people’s access to healthcare was really amazing. During my time here I realized that not only was the clinic providing healthcare, but also education in regards to public health. I helped with the organization of a general health pop-up clinic that included STI screenings for example, or provided mental health services and education.
To conclude, this experience was a phenomenal one. As I said before, I was able to work on so much more than I was expecting to going into it. It was a lot of fun to work on all of these different parts of healthcare, whether it be the provider side or the public health side. I learned a lot about how exactly clinics operate, and especially how important they are when it comes to public health and the overall health of the community it services. One day I hope to be a practicing physician and I would love to come back to a free clinic and donate my time to better service my community. I would like to thank Shawn Marconi for giving me this opportunity and all of the other wonderful staff at WGMC.
