This document summarizes a student's internship experience at the Joseph F. Sullivan Center, which is a nursing and wellness clinic affiliated with Clemson University. Over the course of a semester, the student spent 280 hours assisting with various clinical duties like taking vitals, entering patient information, running tests, and counseling. The student also completed a special project compiling health resources for underserved communities served by the clinic's mobile unit. Overall, the internship provided valuable hands-on experience that prepared the student for a career in physician assisting.

1. My Internship Experience:
Joseph F. Sullivan Center
Kathryn Dougherty
Spring 2017

2. Introduction
• All Health Science students are required
to do a 180 hour internship.
• I was fortunate enough to intern at the
Joseph F. Sullivan Center which is
affiliated with the Clemson University
with an emphasis on student learning.
• Over the course of my Junior Spring
Semester I spent roughly 280 hours in
the Joseph F. Sullivan Center.
• This PowerPoint will help illustrate the
services the Joseph F. Sullivan Center
provides and the duties I performed.
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3. My Internship Site
• Located on the first floor of
Edwards Hall
• The Sullivan Center is a
Nursing and Wellness Clinic
run predominantly by nurse
practitioners.
• The center services the
Clemson employees, City of
Clemson and the underserved
individuals in all around South
Carolina with the mobile unit.
JFSC Entrance
http://newsstand.clemson.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/COVERimage-340x187.jpg
Mobile Unit

4. JFSC Mission Statement
• “The Joseph F. Sullivan Center will drive community health
research initiatives providing innovative, real-life student
learning.”
• With a community and educational focus, students are able to
learn valuable skills while making a difference not only in the
Clemson community but more importantly in communities with
limited access to care
https://www.clemson.edu/cbshs/centers-institutes/sullivan/about/index.html

5. Values and Goals
• Ensuring care is client centered
because relationships define health
• Holistic balance is wellness
• Affordable care is a right of all
• Transdisciplinary teams promote
positive skills
• A global and environmental
perspective is critical to human
development.
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/82/c8/ed/82c8ed426e28de875137a6409ec6e88a.jpg

6. Services Offered
• Acute Care (sick visits)
• Health Management (i.e. Diabetes and
Hypertension)
• CU 4 Health (annual screening and Counseling)
• Physicals
• Medical Surveillance (i.e. audiometric and
pulmonary function testing)
• Travel Immunizations
• Dermatology (once each month)
• Acupuncture
• BCN outreach (with mobile unit) http://www.keycompounding.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/acupuncture-needles.jpg
https://sites.google.com/a/g.clemson.edu/cruhe/_/rsrc/1366510292504/the-joseph-f-sullivan-
center-at-clemson-university/Picture1.jpg?height=136&width=320

7. My Roles
• Obtain Patients Vitals
• Enter patients history and reason for visit
into Electronic Medical Records
• Report to the Nurse Practitioner on staff
• Run lab tests
• Counsel individuals for CU4Health
• Restock lab rooms and prepare materials
for the offsite clinics
• Clean patient rooms
http://images.greenboxmedical.co.uk/images/products/medium/1360846650-30839500.jpg
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8. Obtaining Patients Vitals
As part of the general work up I
recorded patient’s:
• Height
• Weight
• waist circumference
• Blood pressure
• Pulse
• Respiration Rate
• Temperature
• If any values were abnormal I made
note of them to the nurse practitioner
• If Blood pressures were high I asked
patients about their blood pressure
and retook their blood pressure 5
minutes later with a manual cuff on
the opposite arm
Left: Obtaining height and weight of patient
Right: Measuring patients Blood pressure

9. Entering patient History into EMR
• Before the Nurse Practitioner saw each
patient, I entered all the vitals into the EMR
and then asked patients questions related to
their medical history and reason for visit
• Questions on medical history included
current medications, chronic conditions and
social history.
• I also asked specific questions based on
their reason for visit.
• For example: if they were in for a cold I would
ask them for symptoms, onset and overall course
of their illness.
All information I acquired was entered
Into All Scripts including any test results

10. Reporting information to staff
• After obtaining the patient’s
information I speak with the nurse
practitioner on staff about the
patient before they see them
• If any additional labs are needed or
any more questions need to be
asked the practitioner will ask me to
do so at that time
Me discussing patient sick visit patient with NP

11. Run lab tests
• I run several tests on patients
as part of my duties including:
• Step Tests
• Urinalysis (with and
without micro albumin)
• Pregnancy Tests
• Hemoglobin tests
• Blood Glucose tests
• I am also able to order all of
these tests and input the
results into the EMR
Performing urinalysis Performing finger prick

12. CU4Health Counseling
• One of the services offered at the
Sullivan Center is free health counseling
to all employees
• I counsel patients based on their lab
results and their profile which is compiled
from questions they answered online
• We come up with goals they can set for
themselves, generally 4-5, which they will
work on in the next year
• Faculty and Staff can come each year to
get labs and counseling as a part of
CU4Health
• I chart each session and mail lab results
to the patients
To the right is my portal for CU4Health. With
Each patient I review each individual category.
Top: Summary of health Scores
Bottom: Nutrition score and reasoning

13. Restock lab room
• Each week I check the rooms to
make sure they are fully stocked
• If rooms are not I retrieve
materials from the stock room
• I also report any materials that are
running low so they can be
ordered
• I unload any new shipments place
them in their designated areas
• I also prepare the materials for the
offsite clinics such as binders, lab
materials and procedure materials
Looking for medium
Gloves to restock room
Unloading shipment

14. Clean Patient Rooms
• After each patient I
wipe all surfaces with
a bleach wipe and
change the paper on
the bed, I also
change pillow cases
• As a part of the
cleaning I sterilize all
procedure equipment
with in the autoclave
Removing sterilized equipment Cleaning bed after patient

15. Projects
• Each intern is assigned a project to complete
with any down time at the internship
• As a part of Best Chance Network (BCN), 10
new counties were added to the clinic areas
which are reached with the mobile unit
• I created new material for each county
including free clinics, physical activity
opportunities and various health and financial
related resources in the area.
• This material is given to each patient as part
of BCN after their visit
• I placed all materials into a google drive folder
so anyone on staff could easily access the
materials

16. Projects- Clinic Lists
• The Clinic list is depicted to the right including
• Name, address, phone number
• Eligibility such as income level, fees,
insurance taken and languages spoken
• Services provided, hours and area of
services

17. Projects- Extra Resources
• The extra resources included
• Farmers markets in the area
• Food panties and food support programs in
the area
• Senior Dining information
• Substance abuse and tobacco cessation
resources
• Domestic violence resources
• Public transportation in the county
• Housing help in the county
• Adult Education information
• Employment aid
• Financial resources
• Libraries
• Diabetes prevention and education

18. Projects-Get Moving
• I also created a document
outlining
• Parks and trails in the area
• Locations
• Amenities
• Indoor Recreation
• Such as gyms

19. Conclusion
• My goal from this internship was to
obtain hands on patient contact for
physician assistant school
• Not only did I get nearly 300 hours of
experience, I also learned valuable skills
from professionalism in patient
conduct, proper medical protocols,
and how to work on my feet in dealing
with difficult decisions
• I formed lasting relationships with the
staff at the Sullivan Center and will look
back on this experience as not only a
crucial factor in my education but an
experience that gave me the confidence
and optimism necessary to enter into
the medical field