The Final Days of my Placement!

Although I have just finished my PR 393 placement, I feel that this is only just the beginning. I have learnt a lot during my placement. In my last week, I was able to write an article which will be published in the Murdoch Messenger (The hospital’s quarterly newsletter). This was a great experience, as I needed to go interview a member of staff for the article. It always feels good when you produce work which will be read by someone else.

After losing one of projects to computer failure, I was able to finish the project by the end of the week. The patient menu was a rather time consuming task. However, I was very pleased that it was completed by the end of my time at SJOGHM. I was quite pleased with the way it turned out. My manager was also pleased with the final version of the project.

Another one of the projects I was working on was to redesign the theatre menu. Given that it needed to comply with company style guidelines and be in black and white, I initially thought that this would be a hard task. However, I soon discovered that it wasn’t too hard to improve the look of the current menu. It was a task which was testing my creative flair, with many limitations. The company style guidelines, only permit the use of one font!

Diversity in Public Relations
One of the things which surprised me in my placement was the variety of roles of a public relations practitioner. I was involved in a variety of projects during my placement. From starting an internal signing project to phoning companies to obtain quotes for dinners and accommodation and even screws for an honour board, there was certainly a lot of variety!! One of the things I found was that the role of the public relations practitioner is one that is hard to define. The job description varies in each organisation. Working in a hospital, a lot of the PR work was internal communication, which doesn’t seem to be such a strong part in many other organisations.

The Highs and the Lows
I was able to finish up all my assigned projects before I left my placement. It was a good feeling, being able to handover the projects to the manager, with all of them finished up to a point where I could go no further. I do feel like I have learnt a lot during my placement. I also feel like I have contributed strongly to the organisation. My ideas and recommendations have been taken seriously and the projects I have completed will be used in the nearby future.

I guess one of the things which I would have liked to be more involved in during my internship was event management. Unfortunately it was the wrong time of year for major events. I would have liked to see more about event management as I feel that this is an area which I would like to pursue. I did get a little discouraged about my prac about halfway through. I did manage to express my views to the manager, that the type of work I was doing at the time, was not really of any benefit to me as a PR student (The work was predominantly admin based) After I spoke to my manager, I was given more tasks which allowed me to gain a more insight into the public relations department at SJGHM. I encourage many others to be honest with your managers and to speak up if you don’t feel like you are learning anything at your placements!!

I now leave my placement, a little wiser about Public Relations. I feel that I really have chosen the correct course of study and also feel more equipped to go out there and find myself a PR job! Although I still have a semester of study to go, I feel that by the time graduation comes; I will definitely be ready to begin my career as a public relations practitioner!

Good luck to all of you on your placements!!