Obligatory last day lunch

So today marks my last day at South Metropolitan Health Service. I'm very sad to be leaving - the people here have been nothing but welcoming and helpful. The Communications Department team work very well together and even being a witness alone has taught me so many things. I am very grateful they have made my first experience with "real-life" PR an enjoyable one.

This week I worked on communications for the upcoming Music to Open Your Mind event run by the Mental Health Unit. One morning was spent sending booked advertisements out to magazine and community newspapers. Unfortunately the advert size requirements were not made clearly enough and we only realised this after a call back from one of the advertising managers at Perth Suburban Newspapers. Resizing the ad was not a big deal but it just goes to show how much attention needs to be paid to the details!

On a different day I sent out my press release to print media in Fremantle and surrounding suburbs. I wrote the emails that accompanied both the advertisments and the media release and it was a good exercise to see how paid and unpaid media are handled differetnly. The advertisement email was very straight-forward, detailing the agreed time and placement of the adverts. Meanwhile, I slaved over the media release email, trying to make it both catchy but concise because it was the first time the editor would hear of the story.

I was lucky to be able to sit down with my very busy supervisor yesterday and discuss the dreaded intern report. We went through all the headings and she's given me a mountain of documents to read and equally as many sources to explore. We also had a discussion about the role of communications in an organisation and she mentioned the need for PR professionals to 'stand strong' and be confident in their ability to contribute to organisational goals even when it is doubted.

The things I like most about communications is the variety and the fact that every activity carried out in communications contributes to the organisation's overarching goals and vision.

Like I've said before, government doesn't sound like the most glamorous area to work in but it has taught me very valuable lessons. WA Health is one of WA's largest employers and with so much going on I have been able to be a part of almost every type of PR task imaginable. I have much more confidence looking forward to my career in PR after my experiences at SMHS.

I hope all of you enrolled in PR Internship in 2015 have enjoyed/are enjoying/will enjoy your internships. My main advice would is to be enthusiastic and do the right thing - you won't run into too many problems if your colleagues can see that you want to help them and be part of the team. Oh, and get started on your intern report ASAP!

Good luck!

Kelsey :)
Bentley Internal