Field Placement:  Greater LA Veteran's Administration Patient Education Resource Center
Location: Sepulveda, CA
Preceptor: Paul West
Student Name: Patricia Mielbeck
Year: 2006

For my field studies project I worked as a health educator at the Veterans Administration West Los Angeles Healthcare Center.  This is the largest facility throughout the Veterans Health Administration and thus has a very diverse patient base and staff expertise.  I worked in the Patient Education Resource Center (PERC) to provide health education and raise awareness.  The PERC is a center where patients can view health videos, attend classes, receive health counseling, view anatomy models, obtain pamphlets and brochures, and research health topics on their own with health books or on computers.  Part of my job was to create health materials or negotiate with organizations to provide free or low-cost materials.  Counseling patients in the center was my number one priority and responsibility, but promoting health and the center itself was also key duty.  The PERC is relatively new at this location so it was important to work with and inform clinicians about our services so that they could refer patients to us.  It was also necessary to network with staff throughout the hospital in order to broaden our presence, plus having these associations is always helpful in such a large system.  To endorse our services among patients and promote disease prevention and health information I organized monthly health events.  This involved finding a speaker with an excellent knowledge of the subject, contacting other relevant departments or organizations to be present and participate in the event, promoting the event, and managing the logistics that come with planning an event.  Teaching classes and participating in events for other departments is a regular activity at the PERC so quickly became comfortable speaking in front of small and large groups.  This internship was very fun and exciting and really kept me on my toes.  I never got bored because I was constantly working on new projects, no day is like another.  You can’t plan what kind of patients will come into the center, or which staff will approach you about promoting a certain health topic.  There is a lot of creativity, flexibility, collaboration, and patient interaction at the PERC.  It was an excellent opportunity to utilize a variety of skills towards the purpose of health education.

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