Field Placement: Veterans Administration (VA) Sepulveda Ambulatory Care Center Patient Education Resource Center
Location: Sepulveda, CA
Preceptor: Paul West
Student Name: Melissa Azarraga
Year: 2006

My internship this summer took place at the Veterans Administration (VA) Hospital at the Sepulveda Ambulatory Care Center from June 26 to September 6, 2006.  Paul West, who is the director of the Patient Education Resource Center (PERC) for all of Greater Los Angeles, was my preceptor.  I assisted, Aimee Rand, the Sepulveda Patient Education Coordinator and my mentor, with a wide variety of health promotion activities.  My goal as a PERC intern was to guarantee that American veterans were served with dignity and compassion by providing optimal service and care.   

During my internship, I was responsible for an assortment of daily activities.  Throughout the entire span of my placement at the VA, I became familiar with PERC’s materials and services and learned how to use their computer systems, which included VISTA and CPRS.  These innovative programs allowed me to not only look up important medical records, but also compose my own patient education notes.  Some of my other duties at PERC included researching the various health concerns of the patients that utilized our services through the use of different internet search engines, books, anatomical models, health videos, and medical brochures.  Furthermore, I notified the veterans about the health education classes that were available at the center and prepared classes for both patients and medical staff members, informing them about a multitude of public health issues and concerns.  Another component of my internship included selecting appropriate health topics, researching the topics, and presenting the material in a manner that is conducive to teaching patients in the geriatric nursing home daycare (CARE Unit) and the Chemical Dependency Unit, which is a rehabilitation program for veterans with substance abuse problems. 

In addition to health education classes, I also served as a counselor for the Smoking Cessation Clinic and provided individual health assessments to the new VA patients in the WellVet Clinic.  In between counseling sessions and classes, I took part in creating brochures, designing monthly bulletin boards, and writing and mailing out newsletters to the members of the lung disease support group.  Furthermore, I facilitated in the organization of the topic of the month health events that were held at PERC and promoted our services to the patients and hospital staff through the utilization of posters, flyers, PowerPoint presentations, and overhead announcements. 

In order to better target and assist the needs of the veterans, I also distributed, collected, and compiled data from needs assessment surveys that were implemented at the West LA, Downtown LA, and Sepulveda VA sites.    

By working in conjunction with a variety of health professionals, including physicians, interns, dieticians, social workers, health educators, nurses, physician’s assistants, and pharmacists, I was able to understand how to better meet the needs of our geriatric patients and present health material in an effective and compassionate manner.   

Overall, this internship contributed to my growth as a professional and is invaluable to my future career goals in the health field.  My summer at PERC was enjoyable and informative, and it can be largely attributed to the fact that I had an excellent preceptor, Paul West, and a great mentor, Aimee Rand. 

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