Hi everyone,
It's so good how interesting these internships are turning out to be, my internship was so much better than I had imagined. It was challenging, forced me out of my comfort zone and in the end I actually had fun.
I started at Princess Margaret Hospital July 10th and did my internship 2 - 3 days a week there. Everyone was so friendly and I felt instantly welcomed.
It is a small team but so much went on there so it has been really interesting. The Public Relation Manager, Melissa has so much experience in her field and has a really hands on approach with her colleagues which is great because she is very approachable and passes on great advice as she works. She is the PR manage and Kim, the PR officer works in conjunction with her. They consult one another about everything they do and often bantered and vented their concerns to one another openly which was entertaining and very informative. It was really exciting to observe the relationship between journalists and Public Relations Practitioners hands on.
I began by writing a news release about a Health Expo at Mindarie Senior College. We sent it to the local papers in the Mindarie area.
The Executive Director stepped in on one of the days that week to discuss internal communications with the PR manager and I noticed that limited email access is an issue for employee relations here and they discussed setting up more publication displays and notice boards.
The hospital was celebrating its 100th year and there were a few exciting events planned under the theme Centenary. There was a meeting in preparation for the Open Day on July 4, 2009. It would be a day where the hospital would be open to the public and invited guests, exhibitions and activities would be made available and it would be a celebratory event to commemorate the many years of success of the prehistoric hospital.
The main issues raised in the meeting were that there may not be enough volunteers to perform tasks like directing parking and blowing up balloons, hospital volunteers had already been recruited. Fire and Police departments had already provided volunteers as well. It was particularly worrying that it was raining all week and we were all worried about the weather on the day because it would affect the turnout.
Advertising on tertiary institutions websites would have been a good way to get volunteers on board. As we all know, Uni students sometimes just need to complete volunteer work of any kind just to add to their repertoire of skills.
Later that day, the Centenary Coordinator stopped in to confirm that she’d be distributing promotional flyers and balloons in Bunbury that week, she also advised that there was media coverage of Open Day in Bunbury that week and asked if the PR department can liaise with them to confirm what information was being published. It amazed me how everything that went on had to be approved by the PR practitioners first, it's a huge responsibity and emphasizes how much a PR person has to be alert and aware of everything that goes on in the business at all times.
Other tasks I started that week were re-writing the standard template for the thank you letter that the Child Adolescent Health Service issues to those who donate gifts to the hospital, I also had had to send them out to a list of donors and learnt to use the mail merging system on word to send out letters to multiple recipients, which will be very useful in future PR events management! Alot of people gave toys, books and clothing to the children and families at the hospital. It was wonderful to witness that kind of patronage and the many positive letters people sent with their gifts.
I also worked on a couple of stories in Kite Tales, the CAHS staff bi-monthly news letter and carried out adminstrative tasks like scanning and filing news clippings found in key local newspapers relating to the hospital; and scanning and filing photographic consent forms for any photographs were taken at the hospital.
While other people were initially assigned challenging tasks I found that at first there were gaps where I was not assigned any tasks and I sometimes had to drag out a task to keep myself busy, it was awquard and slightly frustrating but this taught me that in this field one has to be assertive and work independently. Although it was daunting joining such a small team because they worked quite closely yet independently and knew each other very well. I wasn't sure whether being assertive would be percieved as being inappropriately forward so I asserted myself quitely and looked for tasks that needed doing that no one had asked me to do. This was the right move because when Melissa or Kim asked for me for something I was prepared and could handle the task, for example I asked questions about where we were and what certain places were so that if I was asked to go down to supplies to pick up something, I knew where to go without needing escorting, this built their confidence in my ability and I soon got assigned more tasks.
The next few weeks were to be exciting and enlightening and although I had no idea how much media I was to be exposed to, I looked forward to the rest of my time at PMH!
Jamira Thekiso
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