Students will conduct two interviews with indviduals in the health care industry: One interview must be with someone who works in a clinical role (e.g. nurse, doctor, physical therapist) and the other must be with someone who works in a non-clinical role/administration (e.g. manager, finance specialist, analyst). The individual you interview should meet the following requirements:
- Have a minimum of five (5) years of experience in healthcare
- Have at least a bachelor’s degree
It is preferable, though not required, that the interviewee is someone that is not a blood relative or “in-law” to anyone in your group.
Purpose
The purpose of the interview assignment is to gain a greater understanding about a clinical and non-clinical position in healthcare. This assignment will give students the opportunity to learn more about how professionals in two areas of healthcare trained to prepare for their current position, what types of activities and tasks they engage in on a daily basis, and what may be important to know as someone who will be entering the healthcare industry as a bachelor’s prepared individual.
Trending Topics
Your first step is to identify and research a trending healthcare topic. Topics must reflect current issues impacting the US healthcare industry. Topics can include: 1) the shift toward value-based care; 2) workforce shortages; 3) the promise of technology; 4) fake nursing degrees; and 5) concerns of health equity. This is NOT an exhaustive list. Please select a topic based on personal or professional interest. The goal is to gain insight into the selected topic from both a clinical and non-clinical vantage point and understand what administrators and clinicians are doing to address the issue.
Sources for potential topics (you may look at other credible sources as well)
The Interview
Look for a practitioner or an instructor in the profession you want to learn mo One person from the group should then send a cordial email requesting about a half hour of their time over the phone or in-person. You may want to identify more than one individual to interview, in case your first choice can’t meet with you within the required time frame.
Before the interview, you should research the educational requirements and typical career path that an individual in the field you chose your take. You will need this information for your write-up and it also may help during your interview to have this pre-research complete.
During the interview itself, your group will need to ask questions that will help you learn more about the profession of your interviewee. Following are some suggested questions, but you may add some questions of your own or ask follow-up questions to their answers. Questions may include, but are not limited to, the following:
- What does your typical day look like? For example, what would be your most common daily tasks and responsibilities?
- What do you enjoy the most about the job?
- What do you like least about your job?
- How do you address: trending topic? Here you will discuss the trending topic to glean additional insight.
- How do you see this job changing in the next 10 years?
- If you could go back and do anything differently on this career path, what would you do?
- What advice would you give to a new professional in your line of work?
You should either record or take extensive notes during the interview, so that you can write up your findings after the interview. If you plan to record the interview, you will need to ask the permission of your interviewee before the interview starts.
The Report Write-Up
After the interview, you will submit one report detailing what you learned from this interview. It is good interview practice to write up your interview very soon after conducting it. Even if you record the interview, there will be things that you forget over time, so don’t delay this part of the assignment.
Your report should contain two separate sections, one section for the non-clinical professional and one section for the clinical professional. The write-up should be a total of four to five pages (not including title page and reference page). It should be written in APA format. The write-up should utilize the following headers:
I. Introduction
II. Trending Topic Overview
III. Required Education and Training
A. Non-Clinical
B. Clinical
IV. Lessons Learned from the Interview
V. Conclusion
VI. Appendix: Copy of Thank you Note
Your conclusion section should address how youwill use what you learned in your own career paths.
