I thought I would take the next few posts to share a bit more about me. My plan was to keep this to one post, but I started writing and there's too much I want to say : )
I’ve been working in healthcare since January 2013, my senior spring of college, when my career started at Boston Children’s Hospital (BCH) with an unpaid internship.
I was one semester away from graduating from Tufts University in Medford, MA, where I was majoring in Child Development and Community Health. I had no idea what I wanted to do (I'm not sure who really does) and I was required to complete an internship as part of the Community Health major.
I have always been passionate about working with kids and health and wellness have also been important to me as I've been an athlete my whole life. Living in Boston, I'd heard about BCH and it sounded cool to work there. I had NO idea at this time what sort of careers existed in healthcare besides the typical clinical roles - nurse, physician, therapist etc. I had NO idea what healthcare administration was or that I wanted to be a healthcare administrator.
So I found some resources on the Tufts Community Health website and started emailing people. I actually can picture where I was in my room in the off-campus house I shared with my college friends when my soon to be preceptor called me back (which is a strange detail to remember). She was willing to take me on board as an intern that spring and we set up a time to meet.
The internship was entirely different than what I thought it was going to be. I thought I would be interacting with patients and families visiting the hospital who needed assistance with resources around Boston or distracting siblings and family members while they were waiting. I ended up finding myself in the Social Work department, working directly with teenage parents who had infants born with bladder exstrophy. I took one of these teenage parents (just a few years younger than me) to the grocery store by the hospital one day. I helped another family apply for housing through the Boston Housing Authority. I had no idea what I was doing and I was in way over my head. But it was also an incredible experience and a unique first experience with the hospital and healthcare system.
Fast forward and I needed a job after graduation. My preceptor sent some emails on my behalf (the power of building relationships started already) and I ended up applying and securing a job as an Ambulatory Service Representative in the Neurology Department at BCH starting a few weeks after graduation.
Again, I had NO idea what this job title meant and what I would be doing. I remember the first day I was brought to my desk in the back of the Neurology outpatient clinic and my manager started training me. I remember specifically asking, am I going to be working with patients? The answer was no, or at least not in the way I envisioned.
I soon learned I was the first point of contact for patients/families calling to make an appointment within some of the specialty clinics in Neurology. The call and message volume was high and I spent all day scheduling appointments, on the phone speaking to parents/guardians or other hospitals, and answering messages about scheduling, insurance authorizations, and prescription refills.
I did not fully understand it at the time, but these next two years were significantly going to shape my future and set me on my current path.
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