Long Term Goals

What is your biggest personal long term goal?

A few of my biggest long term goals personally are oddly specific. One that I’ve had for a few years now is to run a marathon. Specifically, I would love to run the New York City Marathon. Growing up, my dad was always taking me on runs, or long bike rides with him. Seeing him compete in marathons and triathlons regularly inspired me to be active from a pretty young age. To most, marathons seem like some kind of special torture. In reality I think it takes a certain kind of determination and commitment to put yourself through all the training. If a person can train their mind and body to run 26.2 miles straight, they can do anything. To me, running a marathon means you could take on anything mentally or physically.

What is your biggest professional long term goal?

My biggest professional long term goal is harder to say. Although I haven’t started my clinicals yet, I can say I definitely have interests in different types of nursing. To work in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) has been a dream of mine since I was 15. The NICU is a specialized unit in hospitals that care for premature and/or sick newborn infants. I also have an interest in Emergency Room (ER) nursing. I think the fast-paced, chaotic nature of the ER is perfect for thinking on your feet and quick problem solving. For now, I would say my long term goal professionally would be to find a job in a good urban hospital in New York on a MedSurg floor to gain experience, then after a few years move onto higher specialty nursing. To be able to support myself and possibly a family financially in the future is very important and something I took into consideration while choosing my major and ultimately a career path, however finding a job that I love is above all most important to me.

My Long Term Goals

I think that my future long term goals are generally very broad and not specific. This is not to say that I do not have long term goals, but that I keep my short term goals specific and my long term general so that I may always have flexibility in my life to find a balance within sucess and happiness. Over-archingly, my ultimate ongoing long term goal is to be happy. As cliche as that sounds, I feel that if I always strive for happiness and happiness throughout all of my decisions, every other aspect of my life will fall accordingly into place. Underneith the umberalla of happiness is where I further define some of my long term goals. I would like to be sucessful in my career path. Weither this means one day I will be a CEO or just a higher level manager/ supervisor of some sort in the marketing field, as long as I make decent pay and love/ generally like my job, I would consider myself sucessful in my career. Another aspect in my long term goals is to have strong, healthy, and enjoyable relationships. This includes my family, a future husband, possibly kids (in the EXTREMLY distant future), friends and collegues. I would like to fill the enjoyment of my days with happy, lasting, and meaningful relationships. I also have long term goals to travel often. One silly sounding definate goal of mine is to one day own a "house" boat. I love the sea and both my father and grandfather adored boats as much as I do. I think that this would give me a unique oppotunity to travel and enjoy the things that mean so much to me and my family. Also as a long term goal, I would like to live and work within the city of Philadelphia for many years into my career. From there I would either like to move to a more suburban place, or possibly move out of Pennsylvania to some place a bit warmer, possibly in the south somewhere near a beach!

Long Term Goals

What is your biggest personal long term goal?
What is your biggest professional long term goal? 

My first two weeks

Joining the SHM team has been a whirl wind. I can't even believe that I have only been here a few weeks now, but I love it. Looking back on the other co-op positions I had interviewed for, I don't think any could have given me the amazing experience I know I will have here. Everyone I have met so far, especially the marketing department and the other co-ops, make coming into work every morning pleasurable. I have never been said "Good morning" to so much in my entire life and it feels wonderful. Here I feel I can be authentically confident around the entire staff. I feel that I can share my ideas and really contribute to SHM more than a typical co-op could. The only time I felt a little overwhelmed was when I was reading in my "Marketing Co-op Guide" on the first day about possibly google coding. Even though that has not surfaced yet in my work, I am confident that I can ask questions and excel on the task. Other than that, I have felt completely comfortable in my skills to learn all new tasks and take them head on. I also enjoy that Anna Demarco, the co-op from last term is still here working part time in Membership. Although I haven't had to use her as a resource yet, I know that she is a wealth of knowledge and if I ever have any questions that she would be glad to help. As far as the office environment goes, I love that as well. Even though sitting across from Larry can be a bit intimidating, being so close to and hearing Elaine always brightens my day. Also on a side note, I think the coffee and snacks are wonderful, but I am going to have to be careful with the peanut butter pretzels unless I want to leave co-op 2 sizes bigger! I know it is going to be a struggle already!

My first few weeks at SHM have been amazing so far! I was so intimidated at first; I didn’t know what to expect working here because I had never worked in an office setting like this job. However, I was surprised at how natural it came to me. I loved meeting the new people here at SHM (other coops and full time employees) they make coming to work more enjoyable. It was overwhelming at first having all different kinds of training and having all my tasks described at once. But, it wasn’t so bad because everyone at SHM and The Center was very accommodating and walked me through everything step by step. Also, it helped a lot meeting Sabrina, a past coop. She was able to pass on some tasks she had been working on so I learned how to take over her position seamlessly. I felt like SHM is so familiar with the coop process that the training didn’t feel like school, but like brainstorming. I remember meeting with a few different departments and instead of lecturing us they had us think out loud and take a hands on approach to things. It made training feel a lot less to take on then trying to retain all this information the first day. So far, so good!

-Colleen

My first couple of weeks at SHM went very well! I was hit with a lot of information during the 101’s which was a bit overwhelming but once I got the hang of the regular tasks I had to complete (iMIS, phones, media monitoring etc.) I felt more at ease. I really love the environment and the people.  Brendon, the head of the communications department, gave me some independent projects to work on which was great because I felt like I was given work that was able to test my capabilities and even help me to learn more about where my strengths and weakness are. My favorite part of my first couples weeks at SHM were the 101’s. It was really interesting to see what department was in charge of what and who belonged to each department. Since I’ve been here there have been a lot of meetings about different projects within SHM. All of which I was required to attend and even participate in, that related to communications. This was great to see where the communications department would overlap with other departments to get projects done. We also had the October all staff meeting where the co-ops were formally introduced to the staff by their department head and each department updated the rest on some accomplishments/milestones that have occurred. On the other side of things we have had two SHM baby showers since I’ve been working, which were adorable and fun!

SHM Experience after first 2 weeks

The Society of Hospital Medicine (SHM) is the location of my second co-op (of three total) during my undergraduate years at Drexel. The first couple weeks working as an IT Analyst/Assistant under Brett, the Manager of IT Infrastructure, have been very good overall. There are responsibilities with each and every task that needs to be completed, and there are tasks that require a use of cumulative knowledge.
As the IT Analyst for SHM, I have been multi-tasking on different types of projects and tasks to help make Brett's time less stressful and strenuous.

"What was overwhelming during your first two weeks working at a non-profit organization like SHM?"

With every new job there is a learning process, and sometimes, the amount of information that is presented to new employees in the first couple weeks can feel overwhelming.
Overwhelming doesn't necessarily have to dictate a negative connotation, and I would have to say that there may be a positive feeling of being overwhelmed.
The feeling of being slightly overwhelmed can help you stay on focus with what needs to be completed.

"What went 'just right' while working at SHM during the first two weeks?"

SHM has had times where things feel as if they fall into place; the main reason that may occur is because of the excellent and extensive training "101s" from each of the departments. Understanding how SHM is viewed from each of the departments gives the co-ops a good understanding of how the departments are inter-connected with one another.
SHM has been involved with Drexel and its co-op process for a while now, with past co-ops expressing their approval of SHM and SHM expressing its approval of the process.
During my first co-op, I had helpdesk/support responsibilities and that experience is brought over to SHM through my time at the front desk for Elaine.

"What are some of your favorite parts of working at SHM for the first couple weeks?"

As an Information Systems major (with a Business Administration minor) working as an Information Technology Analyst, I have a slightly different approach than many IT majors. Some people involved in IT are not as easily skilled at speaking with others and like to work alone on tasks, but I personally enjoy working with others and seeing how other people's work and contributions affect my work. The information that I have learned in these first two weeks will absolutely become beneficial for me during my time at SHM and outside of SHM when I end co-op in late March.
If I had to choose a #1 favorite part of working at SHM, it would have to be the friendliness, openness, and genuine hospitality of the regular staffed employees. The full-time staff members at many other organizations do not view co-ops as equal employees, but SHM has already shown the care to the co-ops that is expected from SHM's hospitalists to their patients.
(The snacks are always nice too!)

If there are any questions or inquiries, send an email!

Welcome!

Welcome!

Hi Everyone! 

I hope you all had a busy, fun and educational first few weeks at SHM! 

For your first blog post, why don't you talk about some of your favorite parts of your first few weeks here! What was overwhelming? What went just right?