William Lamb

William Lamb

Dr. K

Final Internship Paper

April 21, 2019

William Lamb

1) I, William Lamb, Started my internship in mid January. The name of the agency, that I am so

lucky to intern for, is Fellowship Home at Meriwether. Fellowship home was established in

Milledgeville a little over a year ago. It is a family owned operation with locations all across

South Georgia. Fellowship home brings southern hospitality to an environment that needs it.

Between resident care, activities, exercise and panty more to offer, Fellowship Home is one of a

kind. Fellowship Home has three wings of assisted living and one wing for memory care

patients. The memory care wing includes patients that suffer from an illness or disease that

impairs them to carry out everyday functions. The staff is nothing short of incredible. There is a

head administrator, an LPN, activities director, kitchen staff, kitchen manager, CNA’s, medical

technician’s, maintenance, and house keeping. Each staff member brings a different trait to

make this business successful. Every staff member has a huge role into the residents being taken

care of. The patients being served range from mid fifties to late nineties, some patients even

being one-hundred or older. The patients being served are patients that can function properly,

but just need assistance to make it day to day. The purpose of this facility is to make patients

that cannot live on their own, or may not be able to live with family, feel at home. Making sure

the residents are being treated properly is the main goal. Residents are made to feel “at home”

on a day to day basis. Another mission of this establishment is to take care of the patients needs,

rather it be medical or physical. The residents have activities every week to focus on mental and

social health. There are exercise classes offered every week as well. The LPN also makes sure

the residents are getting the medicine they need, and also making it to the doctor and other

appointments needed to suit residents needs. These residents are well taken care of in every

aspect.
William Lamb

2) So when my internship started I did not know what type of tasks I would be doing. We were

told we would be doing different tasks in different areas so we could learn how the business

operates. Of course we did the basic intern work of like taking the mail, filing papers, helping

with food services, and covering the front desk when needed. That then shifted into us heading

up activities, under the two activities directors. We all wanted to incorporate an activity that

gave nutritional information and activities that brought residents together, for social health

purposes. We were able to come up with our own activities and present them to the residents.

The activities directors were there every step of the way to help with anything we needed. The

best part of the internship for me was seeing the resident’s reaction during every activity. Seeing

how the residents enjoyed us taking time to make activities was heart warming. After most of

the activities the residents were very happy we shared information with them. For the crafts part

of the activities it was good to see how excited the residents got when they completed the crafts.

They were so proud of themselves for creating such art, as were we. With that being said, one of

the more complicated things to do was coming up with activities they would enjoy. We did not

want to be repetitive every week. If none of us could not think of anything to do, we would ask

the activities directors. They always had a solution we could use. There were some incidents

when the residents would request certain activities and there would be no response from them, so

this could be frustrating at times. I wish I could have done more tasks on the administration side,

like understanding how they chose residents off the wait list when rooms became open. I was

also curious how the pricing aspect worked for each resident. I also wish we had been able to

input on the food being served because sometimes the residents would complain to us about the

food, but would never say anything during menu review. I wish we would have been able to be

the liaison for them in the kitchen, but it did not work out that way. For me personal, I did not
William Lamb

like working at the front desk. It is hard for me to sit behind a desk all day and not be able to

walk around. I wish I would have done less of this during the time we were needed for this.

However, I do understand we were needed for this position and that is part of being an intern.

3) Overall the internship did meet my expectations. I was expecting to do different tasks to do

when we first arrived, but I ended up enjoying the tasks we were given. My expectations were

met because I wanted to leave Fellowship Home having learned something about myself that I

did not know before. I learned that no matter what age my surrounding peers are, I can find a

common interest and talk for hours. My personal expectations were met because of this.

Fellowship Home was very open to our ideas. Since we spent most of our days planning

activities, we were able to create each activity daily. We always told the activities directors what

we had planned, and of course they were open to everything we had to offer. For example, we

wanted too incorporate nutritional based activities, and the coordinators loved it. Whenever we

had new ideas for activities they would support us. Being that our intern site supervisor was very

busy everyday dealing different tasks, she still was able to watch us closely when she was not

busy. When she could not, she had the activities directors watch us closely, and they did. They

met with us everyday to make sure we had everything in order for the next activity. They were

able to supervise us when the administrator could not. My experience could have been improved

if we were able to have more to do with the food options being served. I love leaning and

teaching about nutrition. I wish there would have been a way for us to choose some of the food

being served because I think that residents would have benefited from it. I would recommend

this setting to future interns, if it is a career they want to pursue. Not everyone can handle the

older generation, or appreciate them. I would recommend this to a student who want to pursue a

career in this type of setting and also wants to take something away from an internship. I would
William Lamb

absolutely consider a career setting like this one. I loved every minute of it, even on the bad

days. I personally would not want to pursue a career right now in this type of setting because I

think I need more experience in different areas. However, I can see myself working in a setting

like this.

4) I was very prepared for my internship placement. I as able to use the knowledge that I

learned over the past several years and apply it to this setting. I felt the most confident in areas

such as patient care. There were only a few classes where I learned about patient care in

facilities like these. Besides the knowledge I already had, it was easy to catch on. I thrived in

this aspect. I felt the least prepared when it came to filing papers about Medicare and medical

records. I did not know enough about Medicare or medical records. I do not fully understand

how Medicare works or all the pros and cons that come along with it. When I was asked certain

questions about Medicare from the director, I did not know how to answer them. This is

something I need to work on before starting my future in Public Health. I think the courses I

used the most were Intro to public Health and Community Health. Intro to Public Health is the

only class that talked about nursing homes and assisted living facilities. For that class I was

apart of a 30-minute presentation that was centered around both of these topics. Through that I

learned the legal sides of assisted living, and what not to do. Community Health taught me how

to socialize. For this class I chose to work on a farm. I was able to communicate with the

workers to find a common goal as the semester went on. I was able to use these skills during my

internship. I used communication skills I gathered from that class and used them at Fellowship

Home. I think there needs to be a course taught covers everything in the Public Health Filed

when it comes to jobs. I know from personal experience it is tough to find a job in public health,

and I felt like I did not even know where to begin. I did not know what jobs I could apply for
William Lamb

with this degree. I think a class or even a seminar that guides students in the right direction

would be beneficial. I also think a public health job fair would be beneficial as well.

5) I had to have knowledge on how to work with the older population, and all the parts that

make a business successful. I was not familiar with ether one of these. Having to learn these

new skills was not that difficult. Having an amazing staff to teach us all of these traits made it

easy. I was very satisfied with my performance on all the materials we had to turn in. I met

every deadline for each assignment, with time to spare. I put in a lot of time and effort for every

assignment for this internship. My time management was efficient enough for me to succeed on

every assignment turned in. I rate myself very high on quality of work. Not only did I put the

time in for the assignments, I made sure they were completed correctly. For example, I went to

the career center several times for help with my resume. I did not turn anything in that was not

done correctly, and to my fullest ability. My number one skill that needs to be enhanced is time

management. I am a procrastinator, so I make myself nervous when it comes to completing

assignments. Although my work is always correct, I often have to sometimes rush on

assignment days to get it done. Not rushing in a sense of having an hour to spare, but rushing to

get it done. I always have every assignment completed hours before the deadline, but I need to

start getting them completed days before the deadline. This would make assignment due dates

less stressful. Having good time management skills will make me more successful in the future.

I also learned that I get easily angered when I have an assignment or task that I do not want to

do. I have always been this way and I have to change it before starting my future job. It is easy

for me to get angry when there is an assignment or task assigned to me that I do no think is

beneficial or important. I know in my future job or even life, there will be many tasks that I do
William Lamb

not want to do, or see any reasoning behind it. This is something I need to work very hard on

because it is very important to complete every task with a positive attitude.

6) This internship has impacted me in so many ways. I have learned a lot from every resident

that I had the pleasure to meet. Each resident was able to bring a light into my life that I did not

know I needed. It has made mea better and more caring person that I was before I Started. At

first I did not know if I would ever want to work with senior citizens. After this internship I

could see myself working in a setting, such as Fellowship Home. having this internship impact

my life has made me realize many life lessons. I would sometimes come to fellowship in a bad

mood for something that was not important. After seeing the struggles certain residents face

such as maybe having to use a wheelchair instead of a walker, or not being able to leave their

room for the day was very eye opening. Most of the residents were always in positive mood, no

matter what struggle they were facing that day. Through this I realized if someone who cannot

leave their room can smile, then I can smile. These residents have faced obstacles that I can not

imagine. Seeing their positivity through it all was what impacted me the most. Having every

resident and coworker always compliment on the job you are doing, will boost your confidence.

It is always great to hear positive feedback. I have learned an abundance of information about

working with senior citizens. Most senior citizens just want a friend to talk to. Having a

companion to listen to their stories will make their day so much better. I also learned that senior

citizens do not like change. They like a routine, because it makes everyday less challenging for

them. For example, when I changed the way bingo was played earlier in the semester, all chaos

broke out. They did not want anything to be changed because it was fine the way it was. I was

also able to gather that senior citizens are filled with an abundance of wisdom and knowledge.

Listening and applying what they say helped me so much this semester. I am so grateful for this
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opportunity I was able to have through Fellowship Home. Each resident and staff member will

always hold a special place in my heart. This school always students to go beyond their comfort

zones to prepare them for the future. Georgia College is one of the best things to ever happen to

me, and I am so grateful for every experience it allowed me to have.