CAMDEN — By BRADLY Gill
Staff writer
The Ouachita County Medical Center has been the venue of a unique internship program involving seven adults with learning disabilities: Project Search.
The program provides real-world skills and opportunity for a segment of the population that otherwise might not be able to achieve these goals, according to information provided by OCMC.
This internship started in August and ran until May. Participants spent three weeks going through orientation. Grace Mosley, Project Search coordinator, said:
“They come in and do everything a hospital employee would do, so they are treated as OCMC employees. They go through orientation, they get badges made and do the background check and the drug test, just like any other hospital employee.”
Mosley said that for three weeks the interns go over the Hospital Insurance Portability and Accountability act, or HIPAA and other workplace appropriate skills, after those three weeks, they start their internship within the different departments. Each rotation is ten weeks.
Eleven departments have signed up to partner with an intern. The last rotation had two inters in environmental, janitor and housekeeping, one in nutrition services, one in laboratory, one in physical therapy, one in print shop and personnel and one in hospice home care.
The interns work a shift from 8:30 a.m. until 3:30 p.m. five days a week with a half hour from lunch.
“Kind of a typical day is, we have a training room here in the hospital that they hospital provided for us, and we do curriculum" said Mosley, "and so we do a lesson on some type of professionalism, it could be communication skills, some type of work place appropriateness from 8:30 a.m. to 10 (a.m)., and then they do the internship from 10 to 2. When they are done with their internship they come back to the training room for another lesson.
"Project SEARCH Arkansas: Access Initiative has a 97 percent success rate, meaning 97 percent of our interns across the state are now gainfully employed. We currently have 5 sites across the state and will be adding two more for the 2018/2019 program year in Pine Bluff and Fort Smith.”
Beth Ann Bunch recently worked in the laboratory as an intern. Bunch said the most rewarding part of the internship was learning job skills in order to obtain employment, and that she enjoyed learning “ what goes on in the lab and how to do certain skills…and wearing a lab coat.”
Bunch said the hardest part of the experience was meeting new people and that she had never been employed before she applied for the internship.
Bunch also stated that she worked with vials of blood and worked with expiration dates as part of her internship.
“I want to thank Miss Grace, she helped me out a lot,” Bunch said.
Project searches website states: “Project SearchArkansas: ACCESS Initiative is in partnership with several hospitals throughout the state. The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences and Arkansas Children’s Hospital, both located in Little Rock, Ouachita County Medical Center in Camden and St. Bernards Medical Center in Jonesboro. These sites provide the on-site internship for qualifying applicants. Interns will participant in a 9-month internship program that will consist of three 10 week rotations within the hospital setting. Individuals participating in this model should be between the ages of 18-35, have finished high school (or is scheduled to graduate at the end of the current school year), qualify for Arkansas Rehabilitation Services and live anywhere within the state of Arkansas.
He or she must demonstrate independent personal hygiene and grooming skills, have appropriate behavior, be able to get around UAMS, ACH, OCMC or St. Bernards independently and have the desire to work competitively. Applicants must be Nicotine free 90 days prior to the start of the program and must remain nicotine free throughout the program. If accepted, applicant must have reliable transportation to and from either UAMS, ACH, OCMC or St. Bernards and must have an open case with Arkansas Rehabilitation Services (ARS). If the applicant does not already have an open case with ARS, they will need to begin the process by calling 501.296.1600.”
Project Search will be hosting a community coffee on December 5th at 8am to share information with our business owners, leaders, and those involved in the community about how they can play a role in and be advocates for OCMC Project SEARCH.
Applications for OCMC Project Search are now being accepted for the 2018/2019 program year. Application deadline is Jan 31st. Applications can be found at projectsearcharkansas.orgor a paper application upon request. Contact Grace Osborne Mosley at 501-515-4909 or [email protected] if you have any questions or would like more information about the program.