PR Internship Reflective Blog 2

Welcome to PR Internship - YOUR opportunity to put everything you have learned over the past years at university into practice and to get a thorough insight into what public relations is like "in the real world". This Blog allows you to reflect on your experiences, share insights with other students across campuses and to possibly give advice and support to fellow students. Please also see http://printernship-reflections.blogspot.com.au/ for more reflections

Showing posts with label Introduction ot St John of God Murdoch. Show all posts

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Introduction to St John of God

I have finally sorted out my blog a little late but better than never. I started my internship in the Marketing and PR department of St John of God Hospital, Murdoch. I commenced on the Tuesday 3 March.. so I am little late in my blogging and need to catch up!

I chose the Murdoch hospital because my career to date has been spent working for not-for-profit organisations and thought working for such a large organisation would be a good challenge.It has been an interesting journey thus far. When I had my interview with the team prior to the internship I was informed that a lot of their work involved internal communications and event management. I was originally not too interested in these areas but asked the team a lot of questions. I found out that they were in the process of revamping their website, involved in sponsorship, media relations and some strategic planning. All of these other areas interested me so I thought it would make an interesting placement.

I have been enjoying my placement to date. I have been learning a lot about internal communications and the importance of retaining staff. On further thought this does make a lot of sense considering the national shortage of doctors, nurses and midwives.

I have been assisting the Marketing and Public Relations Co-ordinator with the corporate hospitality program. This program centres around employee celebrations and rewards - such as employee gifts, employee and volunteer functions such as: the annual Gala Ball and events including: St John of God day and international nurses day to name a few.

One of my first jobs was to update the guests lists, correspondence and function running sheets for the AFL games. The CEO Peter Mott maintains an annual list of the top specialist providers and rewards them for their hard work by inviting them to various events, such as football matches, entertainment such as the recent cold play concert, Il Divo etc. The Marketing and PR department has the role to communicate and co-ordinate these events.