1. M E G A N F A R R E L L
S U M M E R 2 0 1 5
Smith and Nephew Internship
2. Smith and Nephew Vision:
“Smith and Nephew supports healthcare professionals
in their daily efforts to improve the lives of their
patients. We do this by making a pioneering approach
to the design of our products and services, by striving
to secure wide access to our diverse technologies for
more customers globally, and by enabling better
outcomes for patients and healthcare systems”
3. Smith and Nephew Values
“Our values shape everything that we do as a business
and form the basis of our relationships with all our
stakeholders. Our values also underpin our approach
to sustainable development where we continue to set
challenging performance targets, particularly with
regard to managing our environmental impact and
increasingly in the area of social responsibility.
Our values are articulated under the headings of
Performance, Innovation, and Trust.”
4. Smith and Nephew History
Thomas James Smith opened up a small pharmacy in Hull,
England in 1856. After his death in 1896, his nephew Horatio
Nelson Smith took over the pharmacy. A few days after WWI
began in 1914 the company was awarded £350,000 of surgical
and field dressings to be delivered in five months. Smith and
Nephew expanded into becoming a diverse healthcare
conglomerate with operations across the globe by the late 1990’s
and announced they will be focusing investments on three major
business units – wound management, endoscopy, and
orthopedics. Today they are headquartered in the UK, however
do business all over the world. The orthopedic headquarters in
the US is located in Memphis, Tennessee.
5. Charlotte Office
Smith and Nephew has an
office in Charlotte, North
Carolina that is used as a
“home base” for implants,
trays and more.
Office Address:
4420 Taggart Creek Rd.
#112
Charlotte, NC 28208
The photograph to left is
some of the inventory from
the Charlotte Office.
6. Site Locations I worked in:
Greenville Memorial Hospital:
701 Grove Road, Greenville, SC 29605
Greer Memorial Hospital:
830 South Buncombe Road, Greer, SC 29650
Baptist Easley Hospital:
200 Fleetwood Drive, Easley, SC 29640
Patewood Hospital:
175 Patewood Drive, Greenville, SC 29615
Oconee Memorial Hospital:
298 Memorial Drive, Seneca, SC 29672
7. About Smith and Nephew
S&N is an international company based around four
concentrations of medicine:
Orthopedic Reconstruction
Trauma
Sports Medicine
Advanced Wound Management
Throughout my internship I focused on orthopedic
reconstruction and trauma.
8. Intern Rotations and Roles
Rotations:
Rotation One: Orthopedic
Reconstruction
Rotation Two: Trauma
Roles and Duties:
Learn the techniques
Recognize and understand
the instruments
Tray the carts with the
necessary implants
Restock inventory
Ship necessary trays and
implants to and from
hospitals
Understand sales
techniques in and out of
the OR
9. Orthopedic Reconstruction Rotation
I began my internship doing a
rotation focused on orthopedic
reconstruction. I spent a majority
of my time in the operating room
learning all about total knee
replacements and total hip
replacements from the surgeons,
nurses, and especially sales reps.
The photographs on the right are
two femur implants. The one on
the left is oxinium and the femur
on the right is cobalt chrome.
10. Trauma Rotation
After about two weeks of ortho reconstruction I began to
focus on trauma at Greenville Memorial; a level one trauma
center. Trauma differed from ortho tremendously. As sales
reps we showed up to the hospitals not knowing if there
would be five cases or zero cases. Photographed below was
the very first trauma surgery I saw– a proximal humeral
fracture.
11. Trauma Cases throughout my Experience:
Hip fracture using Trigen Intertan
Proximal humeral fracture
Distal tibial fracture
Volar distal radial fracture
Distal fibular fracture
Medial tibial fracture
Trigen Intramedullary Nail (IMN) for proximal humerus
fracture repair
IMN repair for a distal tibial fracture
Distal femoral fracture using perilock plate
Hip Hemi (this could be considered recon)
Distal humeral fracture using IMN
Distal humeral fracture using Perilok plate
Distal tibial butterfly fracture with IMN repair
12. Projects and Assignments
1. Intern Study Guide: I was
the first intern Smith and
Nephew ever had so it
was a learning experience
for both sides. They
asked me to put together
a “study guide” that
would be useful for future
interns. I compiled my
notes, Smith and Nephew
files and pictures to
create a helpful guide for
future interns to
reference and study
throughout their time.
13. Projects and Assignments
2. Restock Inventory: Everyday shipments of new
implants come in to each hospital due to the high
volume of total joints and overall cases that Smith
and Nephew handles. After every single surgery the
sales representative will reorder the implants used
that day and any other implants that are necessary
for upcoming surgeries. UPS or Smith and Nephew’s
currier will deliver “totes” of either instrument trays
or implants that the reps are responsible for stocking
in the “Implant Rooms” of these hospitals.
14. Totes delivered to the hospitals before I
unpack and restock them in the Implant
Room.
The implant room at Oconee Memorial. Every
sales rep organizes their implants in the most
efficient way for that specific hospital. .
Project and Assignments
15. Projects and Assignments
3. Templating: In the very first week of my
internship I learned what “templating” was. Smith
and Nephew has technology capable of being
calibrated with x-ray files for patient cases. Most
surgeons like to have the patients x-rays templated
for the implants. Smith and Nephew will template
the film with their implants to best fit the patients
needs so the doctor has a good visual and reference
for what size implant he will give the patient.
17. Projects and Assignments
In x-ray films where the
patient has already had one
hip or one knee replaced with
the same company’s system it
is unnecessary to template
again for the other side. The
sales representative and
surgeon are able to look up
the sizes already implanted in
the patient which will give an
accurate estimate of what the
alternative side will call for.
Photographed is an x-ray of a patient
who already replaced his or her left
hip and will be replacing their right.
18. Projects and Assignments
4. Filling out a hospital requisition and re-ordering implants to
that hospital post surgery. Below is a picture of a requisition I
filled out with the implant bar codes placed on the back of the
sheet for billing and tracking purposes. Pricing and patient name
is confidential and therefor not on this example.
19. Overview and Conclusion
Throughout this 180 hour internship I worked very
closely with five different sales representatives,
mainly five hospitals, about fourteen surgeons, and
countless nurses and scrub technicians.
I had the privilege of learning from excellent,
successful sales associates and prominent surgeons
first hand. Not only did this internship help make me
a more competitive candidate for any medical sales
position, but it also confirmed my preconceptions of
becoming a medical sales representative myself.
