Getting To Know My Coworkers

One unique aspect about my internship is that their is nobody in my program who is a master of all the material in the EPIC system. Not only do we all come from different educational backgrounds, such as computer science or pre-med, but all of us interns have completely different training tracks, which requires us to become experts on the parts of EPIC that affect the specific unit of the hospital we are assigned to. Because many of the different applications in EPIC overlap it is crucial that we learn from our peers in order to get a better understanding of the EPIC material we are not often exposed to, as well as give them an opportunity to solidify their comprehension of the material by teaching the rest of us. Therefore, I have spent much time working with people who have a similar training track to mine, but are in different departments. This has allowed each of us to learn the parts of EPIC that are standard in every unit, such as vitals, as well as parts of the program that are more specific to areas that our cohorts have a better understanding of, such as documenting medicinal administrations or filling out a providers workflow. Another resource that has been invaluable in my EPIC training has been assistance from our Leads. The Leads are a group of newly graduated or graduate students, who were part of the program last year, that supervise our progress in the class room and answer any questions we have about how to use the system. More importantly, though, they give us advice on what to expect when we go live on the floors, as well as strategies for dealing with the issues we are inevitably going to face. On top of that, the Leads are by far some of the most patient and friendly people you will ever meet. For example, my unit's Lead, Reid, is such a nice guy that he apologizes every time he assists me, even if he is giving me correct information. I've even had the opportunity to go to a few soccer games with my boss Jarrod. Thanks to great people like this it makes the job ahead look a little less scary and provides a little entertainment in the quiet, cold basement of the hospital.