Background

Projects I worked on with TRRP 

As an unpaid intern, I was assigned a variety of tasks to help the program run more efficiently and I also assisted in research initiatives for the program. One task that I was responsible for was the management of the Chatbot Spreadsheet and Daily Messages. Each morning a list of patients was generated that had been seen with updates throughout the day on procedures performed for their care. From this provided information, I determined and sorted those who became enrolled in TRRP services information into a spreadsheet for the Chatbot feature of the data management system. This allows TRRP to contact the enrolled patients at 30, 60, and 90 days from the initial visit (traumatic event) to screen for PTSD or depression. I worked with the healthcare providers to further understand the care of each patient to make sure they were coded correctly to streamline further interactions. 

To accomplish this task, I was provided access to the hospital computer software which included access to patient information. Before executing this task, I received further training r on research ethics and gained the proper certification to access the database. This level of privacy of patient information mirrored some of my previous public health knowledge as these topics were discussed in my research classes, but interacting with the patient privacy system from the perspective of a student was beneficial. Another responsibility I was assigned was a research collaboration to determine why patient identification information was being misrecorded within the database of the program and the South Carolina Trauma Registry. This required me to search through 775 patient charts to determine their IDs and also determine why the mistake was made. I was in charge of the data collection and frequently met with my supervisors about my progress on the project and was able to discuss my hypotheses from the work. This culminated in a presentation I gave to the team about the findings of my work. I was given this project because TRRP serves as a model for mental health screening in hospitals that is likely to be shared within the field as the American College of Surgery has recently made it a requirement for patients to be screened for mental health during their care after a traumatic injury. TRRP is constantly working for self-improvement to roll out the best practice techniques to meet this requirement. My task with the medical record numbers for these patients was for this ultimate purpose.

Lessons Learned 

Throughout all my time with TRRP, I ultimately gained both practical clinical experience, but also a lot of communication knowledge as I was connected to a large number of individuals to discuss daily practices and gained valuable advice. This form of community was beneficial to my tasks. My work at times felt minimal, however, being part of a group was impactful and led me to want to be a collaborative member in research moving forward in my academic career. My objectives for this experience were to gain further insight into the clinical practice of public health, to utilize research methods first introduced in the classroom, and to involve myself in projects that work towards better patient care. In my onboarding to the group, I learned a multitude about the way the organization functioned to both better treat patients and be a sustainable method to alleviate the burden of diseases. I was able to read and ask questions about the work in a 1:1 environment that met my first objective quickly. The second came when I got to perform the tasks above. I was able to follow through with data collection and analysis largely because the role was able to be offered remotely. Being able to take a hands-on approach to answering the questions at hand was a privilege. Lastly, the whole process was extremely collaborative and I was able to take part in various discussions which were very impactful to the future of patient care.

References

1. National Coordinator for Health Information Technology. (2020). Medical record number. Medical Record Number | Interoperability Standards Advisory (ISA). Retrieved November 2022, from https://www.healthit.gov/isa/uscdi-data/medical-record-number 

2. Statement on Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder in Adults. (2018, February 1). American College of Surgeons. Retrieved November 2022, from https://www.facs.org/about-acs/statements/ptsd-in-adults/.

3. Trauma Resilience and Rehabilitation Program. About. TRRP. (2022). Retrieved November 2022, from https://www.trrphealth.org/about-us

Image Credits:

Header- SEANPAVONEPHOTO/GETTY IMAGES

TRRP logo- https://www.trrphealth.org 

MUSC- https://medicine.musc.edu 

Epic logo- https://images.app.goo.gl/pYMEASBTdFksJZTa6