CALIFORNIA, USA — Usually summer break means time away from school and studying, but for some students it means a paid internship working and learning at Kaiser Permanente.
Hundreds of students are getting real world experience in healthcare while earning a paycheck.
"Basically, on a daily basis I work in the ICU. Sometimes I do the isolation audits, making sure we all have those signs up so families know the precautions," said Brooklynne Davis who worked in the Roseville medical center ICU.
They’ve been working in clinical areas, administrative offices, human resources, information technology and other departments throughout Kaiser.
"This is my actual first job, so I've got to see and experience this nine to five stress that people talk about and just how amazingly incredible life is," said Julius James who worked in the Sacramento Medical Center Support and Safety Services Department.
Paid internships are run through the KP launch program at Kaiser Permanente hospitals and aim to give students relevant experience and insights to careers in healthcare and may help to confirm their future career path.
"They have an idea of what they want to do in their career, but that may change. and now they see different opportunities,” said Tony Brandt, Safety Specialist at Kaiser Permanente Sacramento Medical Center Safety Operations.
Students work in their assigned departments four days a week and have one professional development day where they learn skills ready for more than just the medical field.
“How to dress, how to speak in a professional fashion, we teach them how to update their resume,” said Tara Sunahara, Care Experience Practice Leader/Kaiser Permanente Sacramento Medical Center.
The program is eight weeks long for college interns, and seven weeks long for high school interns.
"I think I'm definitely more confident in myself. At first I was a little more introverted," said Mallak Younis who worked in the Sacramento Medical Center Care Experience /Nursing Administration Department.
This is the 55th year of the program and this year has 187 high school interns and 102 college interns working throughout Kaisers in Northern California.
High school interns are paid minimum wage based on the city they’re working in while college students are paid an hourly rate depending on what year they’re in and ranges between $21 to $25 an hour.
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