Mini-Internship Program
Mini-Internship Program

The Academy of Medicine Cleveland/Northern Ohio Medical Association's Mini-Internship Program is now in its' 21st year. The program gives key opinion-makers in our community an opportunity to learn more about our healthcare system through a program involving visits to area hospitals and the experience of "shadowing" individual physicians as they go about their practices. One of our most popular programs, the Mini-Internship and has been a highly effective way of giving important members of our community a better appreciation of the strengths and challenges of greater Cleveland's physicians and hospitals. 

Community members from the ranks of industry and business, politics, media, labor, clergy, education, and health care coalitions experience a "day in the life of a physician." Interns are invited to shadow physicians while they interact with their patients, perform surgeries, complete paperwork, care for emergency room patients, deal with insurance carriers and more.

Participating physicians represent a broad basic spectrum of medical care - that is, those specialties to which the majority of patients are routinely exposed. While our primary focus is basic "in-the-trenches" medical care, attempts are made for each intern to be exposed to different specialty experiences during the program.

The interns and physicians begin by meeting at an orientation dinner and conclude the program with a debriefing dinner where they discuss their experiences. Following the Mini-Internship, many participants have a new outlook on the medical profession. Some comments following the last program included:

  • "I was so amazed at the procedures performed that I would have liked to have spent more time with each physician."
  • "Excellent program - I feel that I gained a great deal of insight from my experience and I'm sure the knowledge gained will be of use to what I do in my daily work."
  • "I was amazed at the amount of time the doctor and staff had to give."
  • "The generosity of physicians and the staff was overwhelming. I even got quizzed in heart surgery-I didn't expect to be quizzed!"
  • "After my day on Monday, I was in bed by 5:30 PM-it was very rewarding, and exhausting."
  • "The doctor kept me running-I went from a nice practice setting to the ER. I viewed open-heart surgery. My doctor said 'come see this' they didn't want me to miss a thing."
  • "Everyone went out of his or her way to make me feel comfortable."
  • "I visited with a doctor who saw 18 patients in 4 hours. I learned firsthand the difficulty physicians have in dealing with elderly patients. I highly recommend this experience."
  • "I got to see a little bit of everything, including life flight. I was able to scrub up for surgery. My experience will certainly help me to ask better questions."
  • "This experience has brought me more in touch with what the medical community does for us. I've come to appreciate that the system is healthier now than ever because of the passion that physicians have for their patients."
  • "The everyday--commonplace things that doctors do daily are the extraordinary as the ordinary."

Click here to see past participants of the Mini-Internship Program