Purpose: The purpose of this assignment is to learn how to locate appropriate health care professionals in your community and to develop an understanding of the nature of their work, their clientele and their organization as well as their experiences and views about the US health care delivery system. This assignment provides you with the opportunity to connect what you have learned in this course with the perspectives of professionals who are currently working full-time in the health care field. Examples of appropriate professionals to interview are Director of Nursing Services, Nursing Home Administrator, Patient Quality Assurance Specialist, Clinic Coordinator, Supervisor of Patient Outreach Services, or licensed medical professionals such as a Physician, Nurse, Chiropractor, etc. Review Chapter 4 for further healthcare professionals. If you have a certain professional in mind but are unsure if he/she qualifies for this assignment, please contact me.
You should be sure to perform your interview in a safe environment. If you can safely meet your healthcare professional in person, you may do so, but a face-to-face interview is not expected for this semester. A video chat or phone conversation is acceptable. An email/text/social media/etc exchange with your healthcare profession is not acceptable. This is an opportunity for you to have a conversation with someone who may be in your current or desired career field, which is difficult over email/text/social media/etc. Please choose an alternate health professional if this is the case.
Instructions: Your task is to conduct an interview with an appropriate health care professional and to write a report of this interview. The health care professional must be working locally in New York City/Westchester County. Be sure to include what you learned from this exercise and relate it to material covered in this course.
Your paper should include answers to the following questions:
1) What is his/her full name and professional contact information of the interviewee?
2) What is his/her position (title) and place of employment?
3) What is the academic and professional background of interviewee?
4) Why did he/she choose his/her profession?
5) Provide a description of his/her organization.
6) What are his/her roles and responsibilities?
7) Provide a description of his/her clientele. (demographics)
8) What challenges does he/she face in his/her work?
9) What are his/her views about what it is like to work in the current US health care system?
10) What are his/her views as to how the US health care system can be improved?
11) How has your interviewee been impacted professionally by the COVID-19 pandemic?
12) What advice can he/she offer someone who is interested in working in the health care field?
13) If there was something that he/she could change in his/her job, what would it be and why?