final

1. Kaitlyn Greiner
Intern Final Evaluation-Internship Experience
This internship allowed me to accomplish all of the goals and objectives that I set
for myself. For my health assessment goal, I wanted to be able to effectively use the
patient chart database, Epic, to read and interpret patient records with ease. I definitely
accomplished this goal by working on my two research projects and by navigating
through patient records during the clinic. Between each patient in clinic, I would review
their chart to learn about their history and chief complaints for the appointment. I was
able to gain a thorough understanding by knowing this information and then hearing the
diagnosis and treatment that Stefanie recommended when actually seeing the patient.
This also helped me to understand why she asked the questions that she did when seeing
the patient. This first goal also helped with my second goal. For my health planning goal,
I wanted to be able to articulate a plan for surgery for a patient with gastroparesis or a
disease related to the pancreas. By studying the patient chart before seeing the patient and
then observing Stefanie set a plan of action for the patient, I was able to observe certain
patterns and learn from these patterns what the best treatment would be for a patient with
certain issues. The first research project that I helped Stefanie with familiarized me with
the database. I had to navigate to find information about the patients on certain year
anniversaries after their total pancreatectomy surgery date. The second project required
me to navigate through new territories of the database than I had previously. This project
involved seeking patient information after other various surgeries. I entered in the
demographics and pre-op information. I was looking closely at information before the
surgery. This project helped me to connect the pre-op symptoms and test results to the
surgery that resulted from these problems. This project really helped me achieve my
health planning goal of articulating a plan for surgery for a patient with problems. The
projects also helped me to accomplish my health assessment goal. I am now able to
navigate through and interpret lab results, various test results, progress notes from our
clinic or from other physicians, and much more patient information with ease as a result
of this internship.
My implementation goal was to be able to describe the collaboration from several
fields used in the implementation of healthcare in the GI surgery clinic. This goal was
accomplished by attending clinics on an average of two days per week. Just by sitting in
the office of the clinic, I was able to see the interaction of the doctors, PA’s, dieticians,
radiologists, residents, nurses, administrative staff, and a number of other professionals
from different fields. MUSC works as a team to provide care for the patients. For
example, the radiologists are just a call away from the different departments of the
hospital to interpret various tests that were conducted there at the university. Also, the
dietician works very closely with the other healthcare professionals within the GI surgery
clinic. Overall, professionals from many healthcare fields work together as a team in the
GI surgery clinic and I was able to observe this interaction through my internship.
For my intervention evaluation goal, I wanted to be able to describe how the GI
surgery center evaluates their treatment and surgery success. I was able to see a large
volume of successful or unsuccessful stories as I went through each patient for my
projects. While some of the patients were deceased at the time that I was compiling their
information, others had lived many years since their surgeries. The purpose of my first

2. project was to evaluate patient success after surgery using a database, so I am very
familiar with these evaluations of success. The other main way that evaluations were
made was through the conferences with residents, professors, and doctors. The residents
present a recent complication for the audience. Not only do the residents learn from these
mistakes, but everyone in the audience benefits from the presentations as well. These
conferences were such enriching learning opportunities.
For my affective goal, I wanted to be able to articulate how I felt about pursuing
further graduate studies in the physician assistant field by the time that I completed my
internship. I now feel that I can articulate my feelings with more clarity. I spoke with
other newer PA’s about the benefits of the career and obtained some great advice from
them. I can see that I would be capable of being a physician assistant and that their
responsibilities really make a huge difference in the world. I could truly see myself being
a physician assistant in the future. I was also able to sit in for a PA class lecture where
Stefanie was the guest speaker, so this gave me a glimpse into the life of a PA student.
My plan to apply to PA school is still intact after having obtained an in-depth experience
of the life of a PA, so my educational goals have not been changed. The uncertainty about
my career goals has not changed either. I am still applying to optometry school as well,
so I remain unsure about whether I will end up being a PA or optometrist in my
professional career. This will depend on which schools I get into and my feelings when I
tour each school.
I completed the first research project that I was assigned for Stefanie very
successfully. I was working on the Islet Longitudinal Outcome Database. It took about a
whole workday to get past the learning curve of the project, but after that day I was really
confident in my abilities. By the end of the project, I was reading through patient charts
very quickly and was able to interpret them with ease. After I finished the anniversary
patients, I went back to the patients that I started with at the beginning and checked over
my work because I was then fully capable of completing their data input easily. For
example, I checked over my calculations of pain medication conversions because I was a
little shaky with this part at the start of the project. I was able to hone this skill through
the course of the project.
This project required many skills, such as conducting these pain calculations. One
major skill that it required was organization. Stefanie had already listed the patients out in
a very organized fashion and it was imperative to remain consistent with this method in
order to input the data for the correct year for each patient. I also researched any words or
topics that I did not understand to successfully input the correct data. I researched before
asking questions because it was important that I try to figure something out as best I
could first so that I could learn to do all of my work independently. This is an important
skill for a PA to have because the doctor cannot be bothered with many questions when
working. Diligence was an important skill for this project. It was a project that required
attentiveness and commitment. I worked on the project without stopping for one entire
day each week of my internship plus any extra time that I had in clinic. This input of time
and attention to detail were essential to successfully completing this project. This
organization, independent research ability, and diligence were my strengths in the project.
My weakness was that it took until the end of the project for me to become an expert in
the work. This caused me to need to check over my work in the end. Though, there was
really no way to avoid this delay. The project required practice in order to complete it

3. successfully. In spite of this weakness, I feel that I was able to positively contribute to the
internship site with my two research projects. All in all, I helped two PA’s out with their
research. I completed the anniversary work that needed to be done for Stefanie’s project
and I accomplished a lot on Megan’s project. They were both behind with their projects
and I helped to get them back up to date. The projects not only helped the two PA’s, but
also provided me with some hands-on experience with patient charts and taught me more
than I could have imagined.
Although this internship was a much different learning experience than a typical
classroom setting, I used much of the knowledge that I’ve learned from my courses at
Clemson throughout my time at MUSC. I have listed some of the specific courses as
follows:
1) Anatomy and Physiology (and labs)
2) Anatomy and Physiology Lab TA course for Dr. Cummings
3) CPR/First Aid for the Professional elective
4) General Microbiology
5) General Chemistry/Organic Chemistry
By far, the most helpful course was anatomy and physiology. This course helped with
understanding various surgeries in my research projects as well as understanding patient
problems. It was very important to be able to visualize the anatomy of a human when
such complex surgeries are being discussed and explained to patients. Being able to serve
as an undergraduate TA for this lab helped immensely. Both my general chemistry and
organic chemistry classes helped with reading and comprehending patient lab work on
Epic and inputting this data for my projects. Being able to make connections between lab
results and patient outcomes would have been very difficult without a chemistry
background. Microbiology was in the back of my mind when noting how clean the clinic
must remain at all times. When entering and exiting every patient room, Stefanie uses
hand sanitizer on her hands for safety. My CPR and First Aid course helped with having
background knowledge for the removal of surgery staples and when observing surgical
wounds.
The pre-internship course also prepared me well for this internship. The course
helped me to figure problems out on my own and this was essential to know for the
internship. The course also trained me on the subject of health literacy. This health
literacy training was utilized daily. Stefanie asked each of her patients about their current
medications and I was able to see the range of full health literacy to very little literacy
among her patients. I observed Stefanie using more simplified terms with the patients
who she sensed were not very health literate. I hope to be able to help my future patients
in this same manner so that they understand as much as possible regarding their health. I
also saw that it was mentioned on patient records if the patient was not very health
literate. This shows that health literacy is a very important skill to have because it was
mentioned on patient charts. My own health literacy was tested and utilized with both
projects. I was required to read and interpret patient records as well as database
information. My health literacy was improved from this internship immensely. I did need
to research many health terms with which I was not previously familiar. My research and
the daily exposure to health terms truly ingrained a great deal medical terminology in my
mind. Overall, this internship provided me with educational experiences in many aspects
of the healthcare field.