Project Search Interns Find Success in Hot Springs

Ywania Smith sorts hospital supplies as an intern in materials management.

CHI St. Vincent Hot Springs has been working with the Fountain Lake, Hot Springs and Lakeside school districts on a new special education school-to-work internship program.

The Hot Springs Sentinel-Record recently featured CHI St. Vincent Hot Springs and the work they have done with the program. Click here to read the full article.

Two years ago, the districts began researching the program and cultivating a relationship with the hospital. When the time was right, Candice Rhea, CHI St. Vincent talent acquisition coordinator, began working with them to plan the program’s implementation.

The hospital can accommodate as many as 13 interns each year who work from 9am – 2pm in departments throughout the facility. They work with a shift supervisor to determine when they go to lunch, when they go to break, what to wear and other details of their daily duties to make the experience as realistic as possible.

“The support we have gotten from CHI St. Vincent I think is absolutely phenomenal,” said Laura Winston, a Lakeside Middle School instructor who works with the students in the program. “I can’t imagine it going any better than it has.”

In the short time the program has started, it has already seen great success!

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