Jordan never answered last week's question, so Jordan: you know the drill. Make sure you answer that question and this week's as well. THANKS! 

This week:

What is a song or specific song lyric that describes you/your life at SHM and why?! 

Enjoy !

JANUARY ALREADY?!

 

I can't believe it is JANUARY. This co-op has been flying by! I think what I have been enjoying the most is getting to know everyone around the office as well as getting to know the company better in regards to what actually goes on at the different conferences and all the jargon that gets used around here. I hate to sound cliche, but I have really been learning A LOT about the health/medical industry these past three months and why SHM is such an important organization. Knowing more about SHM also helps me assist the millions (not actually millions I'm being dramatic) of people I talk to about registration everyday. I like being able to confidently answer questions and assist people. I used to get super nervous ("I get super flexible when I'm nervous" -Andy Bernard) whenever my phone would ring, but now that I know the registration system (Experient) and SHM a little better, I have been successfully helping people leaving me feeling like this:

 

 

 

 

Instead of like this:

 

  

 

For the rest of my time at SHM I would like to observe how the annual meeting unfolds. I just find it really interesting to see what all goes into planning a huge conference like this. I REALLY WISH I would get to go, I do a lot of the registration for it so it would be cool to actually get to see what it's like. I am also anxious to get this Exhibitor project really moving, it has been one of my favorite projects so far. Soooooooooooooooooooo, that's it. :-)

 

 

 



What have you really enjoyed so far? What do you hope to do more of in the last half?

It feels like we've been here for so long, but at the same time, it feels as if our first day was only just a few weeks ago. One of the things I've really enjoyed here at SHM is the conversations we've had about preventable medical errors in the hospital setting. Even though they are only articles, the stories we read and discussed about serve as a constant reminder of exactly what we're doing here in the Center, and the ultimate goal and purpose behind weeks and weeks of data entry.

I've also really enjoyed the current project I'm working on for MARQUIS, which involves matching the IDs for over 3,000 medications. Though it is indeed very tedious, it constantly amazes me how there can be so many medications in existence, and what types of drugs people often put into their body. The Medication Database has definitely been very educational in terms of learning what every drug does and the effect it has on our body. My unexpected self-taught study of pharmacology coupled with my data entry for patient medications allows me to see exactly what kind of patients take what kind of medications, as well as the alarming number of medications each patient intakes on a daily basis. Some patients take an upwards number of 30 medications at the same time.

In the last half of the co-op, I hope I am able to continue learning more about what patients go through (even if it's only behind the scenes), and to be able to at least contribute to some of the research and changes to be made for patient quality improvement. Moreover, I hope I am able to take part in more of the calls that go on for some of the committees and subcommittees for SHM - for example, the pediatric committee that Ann had mentioned before. I really wish our co-op extended for a longer period of time so that I would be able to attend HM13 and be able to further communicate with many of the physicians and healthcare professionals about their experiences in the hospital setting, as well as attend the many sessions offered at HM13.

I’m not going to say I can’t believe we are half way through this co-op because that is cliché and clearly I can believe it since I own a calendar.  But nevertheless, time has gone by really fast.  It is amazing to think how long I have been here, but it is equally amazing to think about how much I have learned in such a short amount of time. 

What I have found to be the most enjoyable part of my time at SHM are the opportunities I am given to learn about myself and my future career objectives.  Coming into my first co-op I knew I enjoyed marketing, but I had no idea in which direction I wanted to go with it.  Now, after completing only half of my first co-op, I already have a better understand of what I want to do in this field.  

I told Hayley I was interested in the design and layout aspect of marketing and she let me sit in on the art meeting and gave me creative briefs to work on.  Also, I told her that market research seemed interesting to me.  Hayley made me a crucial part of the market research team and I learned how much I enjoy that sub-field of marketing.  Now, I know that design and layout and market research are two subjects I want to learn more about at Drexel and continue working on at future co-ops.

What is next for me at SHM?!

       So far at SHM, I have enjoyed everything! I really enjoyed this coop so far and can’t wait to learn more in my final months. What I specifically enjoyed in my department is media relations as well as the social media aspect of Marketing and Communications. Just today they were asking me what I think I wanted to do for my future. Short answer in the meeting was "I am not sure" Ashley told me that is not the right answer. I felt silly at first but they both really put it in perspective and really helped me in thinking about what I really liked and didn't like here and what I could do in the future. It led me to actually think about what I would want to do in Marketing today and thinking about how they can relate to my career development. I tied this back to my work on social media as well as getting into a career maybe in Media Relations as I have taken a likening to working with Brendon and Ashley on Wiley content and generating media for SHM and working with various writers. I have found that very interesting. That is one big thing I have enjoyed and am grateful is working for Ashley and Brendon, as they have been the best bosses I could ask for as they both push me to do my best work. They always have my best interests first and are making sure that what I am doing is interesting and what I want to be doing. I have had no complaints as I always feel like I have a good amount of work that I am always working on and I know when I get here their are tasks for me to work on that are helping me enhance my professional career. I have learned so much in such a short time that truthfully I did not believe I would learn in just 6 months.

       Brendon and Ashley have allowed me to access many great channels such as Cision which allows me to follow media that relates to hospital medicine and SHM in general. Also, being a part of Wiley conversations and learning a lot of great things that go into generating content and creating awesome social media strategies. My biggest thing second half would have to be perfecting social media strategies and content gathering using HootSuite. I think being able how to use applications like HootSuite and Cision is great for my career development as well as drafting content and formatting is something I have taken to a likening. Ashley is always helping me with my writing and how I can make it better and relate to SHM, whether I am drafting social media posts or drafting webinar content, I have really liked that and plan to ask for more content like this. With Ashley leaving its going to be a hard transition for SHM and Brendon but it is going to be something I can learn from and a way for me to take on maybe some of the roles Ashley leaves behind and assist Brendon as much as I can. I am excited for these next few months and going to miss SHM in April when the coop is over!

PS. If you have not noticed by now, I write a lot so sorry for it being so such a long post! hahaha

GUESS WHAT.

You're almost half way done your co-op here. Crazy, right?

What have you really enjoyed so far? What do you hope to do more of in the last half? 

You will get asked this question during our check-in lunch later this month so there's no better time to prepare your answer than NOW! 

Also, get excited for the co-op party on Thursday, it'll be a great time.

So it's the friday between christmas and new years

And this is the last place I'd like to be right now.

Meet Mrs. Grumpy Cat. Despite her grumpy face, she's apparently a right cheerful cat.
But I don't know, as she's from the land of the INTERNET!

I realized I hadn't posted a blog post, so here I go, late and not late at the same time. This is Schrodinger's post. yay science joke

Look at how much time I'm taking to make the words look all different and cool, you must get an idea for how slow things are moving here.

So, for Christmas I went down to Baltimore to spend it with my family, all 40+ people of the extended family. Holidays get quite hectic around my family for that reason alone. Christmas was different this year, as we had to cross out three different names from the 40+ people: My mom's father, my dad's mother, and my dad's uncle all passed away this year, and my dad's mother's (my grandmother) favorite holiday was Christmas. Needless to say, my dad's side of the family was a little blue, but it was good.

Now, for the new years, I'm going to a party at a friends house, and this will be the first time I'm not with my family for new years, so it ought to be fun!

What do I have to do before this weekend? Well, just get new computers as far along as I can. It's bottle-necked though, as I can only do two at a time. Oh well, I shall be doing a lot of that next week, and the week after!