Tuesday, February 17, 2015

Attention: Applicants!


During the last few weeks the current interns and I have been receiving multiple questions about the internship from current applicants. While the interns and I enjoy talking and communicating with the applicants, I thought it may help to answer the most common questions!


1.  What is the average time it takes you to drive to a rotation?
This really depends on what site you are rotating through. For  example, my clinical rotation was in D.C., which is where I live, therefore it was on  average a 10-15 minute drive. As for other sites that are closer to Baltimore this can take me anywhere from 45-50 minutes. This year, interns live in pretty spread out areas around Maryland and D.C. therefore some interns spend the night at other interns apartments who live closer to the rotation site!





      2. What is a typical class day like?
Class days can range from conferences to lectures to technology training's to homework review sessions or a mixture of all! If we are not attending a conference, our class days are typically held at the National Agricultural Library or Harbor Hospital. During the class days at the National Agricultural Library we typically spend part of the day learning about technology applications, databases or programs such as Weebly, Trello, and Prezi. We also work on upcoming technology projects such as podcasts, Weebly videos and Weebly milestones. During class days at Harbor Hospital we participate in lectures, which gives us a general review of clinical terminology and clinical care.

 3.  How many hours do you usually spend on assignments outside of the hours at the rotation sites?
This also depends on the specific rotation you are in. During my clinical rotation I found myself spending about 1-2 hours a night to complete the weekly homework. I did find if I competed a portion of the homework over the weekend I would only spend about 1 hour a night over weeknights. During the rotations that did not assign  specific homework, I still found I myself spending about 1 hour on internship projects, assignments or milestones to keep on track with  the internship's work load. 




 4. Where is the best location to live?
I am not sure there is a “best” location to live because finances, location and personal preferences may rank differently for everyone. I know last year interns recommended living in Silver Spring MD. or College Park MD. because these are pretty central locations to most of the rotations sites. This year a few interns, including me are living with family members, which may increase the distance to rotation sites, but decreases the total expense (not having to pay monthly rent). Therefore, I believe picking a location to live depends on the intern and how they feel they can manage their travel and expenses!

 5. Have you found the workload to be difficult to manage?
I have not found the workload to be difficult to manage. I do find that it is important to stay on track with the workload and to complete small amounts each night. I currently find it very helpful to make a list each week of objectives to complete and I try to stay on track with the list to ensure I do not fall behind with the completion of assignments and projects. Our director and preceptors are also always available for questions and are extremely punctual with responding therefore, I find it very easy to ask our director or preceptor’s questions that may arise!

      6. The website explains that interns must take technology classes, what are technology classes?
Technology classes are during class days and can range from learning about social media databases to learning about new technology applications to completing assignments and milestones. We have learned about social media databases, which allow us to market ourselves as RD’s such as Weebly, Twitter and Pintreset. During technology classes we have also learned how to create podcasts and videos for our Weebly account. Lastly, during technology classes we have learned about new applications that can be used for organization skills and presentation development!

7. What recommendations do you have during the internship?
I believe my number one recommendation during this internship is to be flexible! As I have been told, driving in Maryland is difficult due to traffic and weather conditions therefore it is always
a good idea to leave 20 minutes earlier than expected to account for any driving complications!

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