This week has been full of new beginnings. Although Labor Day provided us with a shorter work week than usual, I can’t help but feel as though we accomplished a full week’s worth of work in just four days.
Starting on Tuesday, I led my first Arts in Health committee meeting. I was joined by two Atlanta artist volunteers, Amber and Rayshana, to discuss issues that they had experienced when volunteering during the first year of the Arts in Health program last year. Both Amber and Rayshana were dissatisfied with the strategy that Winship had used to attract other artists and didn’t find the open house to be an effective approach. The problem they saw was not with the event itself, but with how it had been run. Since my job was to develop an open house/orientation plan for this year, it was clear that our approach had to be more inclusive, inviting and intriguing for artists.
I started by modifying the PowerPoint slides that were used at the first open house. Amber and Rayshana had wonderful insights into how to properly market the program towards artists to make the program more welcoming to local community members. Although their input was incredibly valuable, I was finding it difficult to balance their requests, with the requirements that Winship deemed critical to include in the volunteer orientation. This balance continues to be a work in progress, but sharing the mutual goal of a successful orientation is what drives us towards compromise!
At the end of this week, we were joined by a group of Masters in Public Health students from Emory. They will be helping us by conducting research throughout the beginning of our program. It is my job to lead and teach the four graduate students who will be with us and I am the intermediate between them and my supervisor DaVida. In our meeting, we gave them a description of the program, as well as gave them a tour of the facility and a outline of next steps. I’m excited to start working with these students and to get more concrete data of how we can better improve the Arts in Health program, and in turn, improve the lives of our patients, caregivers, and staff members.
Involving the masters students was been a wonderful experience in helping me accomplish the goals I have set for myself and this internship. In teaching them, I realized that I have finally reached a place where I understand both Winship and the Arts in Health program well enough to synthesize its purpose and incorporate others into our project. This realization gave me confidence and motivation to continue learning, sharing, discussing and growing as my internship continues.