SITE SUPERVISOR’S RESPONSIBILITY TO THE INTERN AND TO THE UMD INTERNSHIP COORDINATOR

Prior to beginning the internship, students will have formulated 5-7 expected measurable outcomes that they desire to achieve through the internship experience. The site supervisor should use available resources to help facilitate the desired outcomes.

In addition, students are required to gain experience in the NCHEC responsibilities (see Appendix E). Since a major purpose of the internship is to  introduce students to the people and situations they may encounter as a beginning health education professional, it is required that students gain experience in four out of the seven responsibilities for entry level health educators.  Competencies and sub-competencies under the seven broad responsibilities help clarify their meaning.  The NCHEC responsibilities are intentionally broad  to fit with the generalists’ nature of the health education profession.  Another purpose of the internship is to enable students to ascertain the most appropriate and desirable entry-level position in the health education field which matches their own career goals and expectations.  Therefore, it is recommended that students gain experience in at least four of the content specific areas (see Appendix F).

In addition to the above, site supervisor’s roles are as follows:

• Provide supervision of the intern.
• Provide a wide experience of community health education problems and programs, as is possible within the agency’s limitations.
• Provide the opportunity for the intern to experience an over-all orientation to the agency, which will include its purposes, what services it provides, populations served, etc..
• Notify the college immediately (within the first two weeks if possible) in the event of any emergency or problems which may threaten the successful completion of the intern’s assignment.
• Review weekly electronic timesheets submitted by the intern for accuracy and verify by forwarding these timesheets to the internship coordinator. Comments can be added regarding the intern’s progress.
• As necessary, plan with the intern coordinator and implement appropriate learning experiences aimed at the achievement of the objective of the internship program.
• Provide an evaluation of the intern’s performance midway through the internship and at the end.
• Agree to meet with the student to discuss midway performance prior to meeting with internship coordinator.
• Meet with internship coordinator & student to discuss midway performance.  It is preferred to do this in person on-site, however, if this is not possible, phone, email or fax will suffice.
• Agree to meet with the student to discuss final performance prior to meeting with internship coordinator.
• Meet with internship coordinator & student to discuss final performance.  It is preferred to do this in person on-site, however, if this is not possible, phone, email or fax will suffice.
• Agree to fill out a survey about their agency’s internship program which is to be kept on file in the coordinator’s office for future students to assess.