That's part of a conversation that transpired in my office recently. The speaker was a student that had recently completed a certification course and wanted to work - at a paying job if possible - but in any case she wanted to work; even if it was without pay.
About this time each year, we in Human Resources get a lot of questions about internships so I wanted to create a post to begin addressing the question. Some of my well-qualified colleagues in our Blog Mob may want to add to my response.
What's an Internship?
I should start by somehow defining an internship. Merriam Webster defines an intern as an advanced student gaining supervised practical experience in their professional field. Internships are usually short term (think summer intern) and they may or may not offer pay. Depending on the field, work of an intern may involve a great deal of observation, or it could include some very real hands-on experience. In some cases, an intern is called upon to help alleviate the burden of a stockpile of backed up work - things like filing, copying, entering data, etc.
Tanner Health System does, at times, offer internship opportunities. The availability of these opportunities will range anywhere from never in some departments to quite often in others.I spoke with a department director this week about the possibility of internships in her area and she explained to me that because their work would require almost constant oversight, it just wasn't feasible for them to offer internships. If they did, a paid employee would spend most of their time just training and supervising the intern.
One Hand Washes the Other
This brings us to another question: who really benefits from the internship experience? Ideally, internships work out as a "win-win" situation for everyone. The intern receives some much needed "hands on" experience in the real world of health care. And the department receives the benefits of having an extra worker in the area; the possibility of learning some new ideas from someone fresh from the classroom; and a free look at a potential future employee.
If you are a candidate for an internship at Tanner (or anywhere else for that matter), it would behoove you to remember this and do what you can to make the experience profitable for both you and the employer.
How to Get Started
Now to the question that usually follows the "do you offer internships" question and that is: "How can I become a Tanner Intern?".
Tanner does not have a formal process for recruiting interns, so you will not generally find internships posted on our website. Instead we encourage students to contact the career services department at their school. Often they will have information about available slots, or they can initiate contact with Tanner Health System in an effort to explore internship opportunities.
If you have the good fortune of joining Tanner as an intern, remember there are no guarantees of future employment. However, you can count on the fact that you will have an opportunity to learn. And as that student in my office recently already knew - learning is always a very valuable experience.
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