Journal of Community Medicine & Health Education
Open Access

Review Article

Maximizing Internship Value by Comparing Student Satisfaction and Program Competencies

Department of Health Services & Information Management, East Carolina University, USA

*Corresponding Author:

Bonita Sasnett
EdD, Associate Professor
Department of Health Services & Information Management
East Carolina University, USA
E-mail: sasnettb@ecu.edu

Received date: December 16, 2015; Accepted date: January 20, 2016; Published date:January 31, 2016

Citation: Sasnett B, Ross T (2016) Maximizing Internship Value by Comparing Student Satisfaction and Program Competencies. J Community Med Health 6:390. doi:10.4172/2161-0711.1000390

Copyright: © 2016 Sasnett B, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Internships are opportunities to apply academic learning to practical experiences and integral components of many academic programs. Internships provide many advantages to students by introducing them to the world of work and skills needed for them to succeed in their future careers. Limited research documents the importance of student voices in identifying internships that reinforce learning. A question to consider is: “What are students saying about their internship experience?” This study compared student survey results against course competencies in a health services management program. Students rated their soft skills, communication, teamwork, and professionalism higher than hard skills of data management, analysis, and problem solving. Findings indicate more curricular emphasis should be placed on written communication, data analysis, and problem solving to ensure students have a tool box of skills to offer employers.

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