Where are they now?
The CHITREC internship program has a total of 35 current and past interns. Those who have completed the program have moved on to careers in HIT and beyond. Employers include: CHITREC, the Alliance of Chicago, Beloved Community Family Wellness Center, Chicago Family Health Center, Resurrection Health Care, Swedish Covenant Hospital, Currence Inc., and Deloitte. Other interns have continued their undergraduate and graduate education at DePaul, Northwestern, Tulane, and Cornell.
What are CHITREC interns saying about their experience?
“[My mentor] was very helpful in all aspects of the internship from coaching, to providing resources, and helping with my MU2 presentation. I couldn’t have asked for a better mentor. She taught me eclinicalworks, and patient portal. She let me tag along to visit a couple of providers so I could get familiar with attestation. She sent me many, many links that would be helpful in advancing my career. When I was interested in other things related to Health IT, she allowed me to spend time on these other areas of interest. In one word, she is AWESOME!”
“I learned a lot about the HIT field and without this internship, I would have not been able to break into this field despite my Master in Healthcare Administration.”
“CHITREC has the best internship in terms of hands-on experience on ‘Meaningful Use’ of certified EHR and everything associated with it. I learned more from it than the training I received in [my formal training program] and without the internship I wouldn’t be where I am today.”
“Interns are responsible for many facets of operations and get the opportunity to participate in both office meetings and ‘real-world’ events with the member community and partners.”
“Through mentorship, shadowing professionals in general internal medicine, real-life experiences in research and executive meetings, hands-on assignments and constructive advice, the experience became a true career experience beyond an internship.”
“The internship helped me gain a lot of confidence in myself and helped me realize my strengths and weaknesses.”
“The most valuable experience at CHITREC was the ability to participate in discussions and talk about our career paths and goals. We were always encouraged to go where we wanted to. With the growing roles in HIT, our intern group found career options and changed paths fairly quickly.”