Project Title: Coping with COVID: the U.S. Healthcare System and Mental Health Concerns
BASIS Advisor: Dr. Hartman
Internship Location: Community of Hope
Onsite Mentor: Susan Wallin
How has COVID-19 affected the need for psychological training among American general practitioners? Should all American general practitioners be required to receive additional psychological training in order to help patients cope with the stress of the pandemic? My project will attempt to answer these questions and illuminate how COVID-19 has changed the psychological states of patients in the U.S. healthcare system. Ultimately, this research would help equip the U.S. healthcare system to deal with the mental health challenges posed by the pandemic. In order to address these questions, I will undergo independent research using studies about the mental health effects of the pandemic in the United States. I will then analyze these effects and assess how psychology-focused continuing professional development programs could help prepare general practitioners to handle the current increase in pandemic-related mental health complaints. Additionally, I will integrate some of my internship experiences to add some qualitative data. I will be interning at Community of Hope, a volunteer organization that aims to combat health inequity by providing mental health resources to underprivileged individuals in Washington D.C. From this experience and my independent research, I hope to draw conclusions about additional psychological training that would help American general practitioners deal with the influx of patients with mental health concerns due to the pandemic.
My Posts
Week 10
May 20, 2022
This was the last week of my internship at Community of Hope. I only went in to the Conway Center on Monday, since the building was closed on Friday due to a staff barbecue. I spent this week finalizing all of the projects that I had worked on during my time with COH. I finally […]
Week 9
May 13, 2022
This week, I was fortunately able to shadow Sheila Tank, a nurse practitioner at Community of Hope. N.P. Tank sees a variety of patients over a wider age range than Dr. Bellard, so it was interesting to compare my experiences while shadowing each of them. Dr. Bellard is a pediatrician, so he sees mostly kids […]
Week 8
May 06, 2022
This week, my internship schedule was the same as usual. I came in to the Conway Center on Monday and Friday, completing some hours at home as well. I met up with my mentor on Monday for a meeting with the Reproductive Care Coordinator at COH. I was in the process of making a workflow […]
Week 7
Apr 29, 2022
This week, I got to see Community of Hope’s newly renovated Family Health and Birthing Center. COH offers many services to help with pregnancy care, and these have now been centralized in the FHBC building. The midwifery team has been re-stationed there, since all the midwives function as one unit in order to provide patients […]
Week 6
Apr 22, 2022
This week at my internship, I was able to take a more active role in a meeting for the first time. Previously, I had just listened to the presentations of actual employees in order to learn more about how the admin and QI teams at COH work. On Friday during the monthly QI meeting, however, […]
Week 5
Apr 15, 2022
Last week, I only completed part of my hours because my family was traveling for spring break. We went to Montreal to see McGill University, since I will be going there in the fall. Montreal is in Quebec, so French is the official language spoken in the city. I don’t speak French, but I hope […]
Week 4
Apr 01, 2022
This week, I continued to work on my data quality control projects at my internship. I worked in person at the Conway Center on Monday. Unfortunately, there were tech issues again, so I wasn’t able to access the patient data software that I needed to use to complete my project. Instead, I made some more […]
Week 3
Mar 25, 2022
This week, I became more involved at my internship and branched out from my data quality control projects. I worked in person at the Conway Center on Monday, starting off the morning with a meeting with a Behavior Health coordinator. She gave me a new project to do that involves calling patients and sending them […]
Week 2
Mar 18, 2022
This week, I started to do my real internship work, having finally completed my orientation and onboarding materials. I worked in person at the Conway Center on Monday, and I spent a couple hours completing a data cleanup project. This involved checking patient information on COH’s electronic portal for continuity and filling in any gaps. […]
Week 1: Internship Orientation
Mar 11, 2022
This week, I mostly completed paperwork and filled out onboarding materials in order to begin my internship at Community of Hope. I attended a virtual volunteer orientation session on Wednesday, which helped me learn more about the history and protocols of the organization. Additionally, I was required to take a TB test, which fortunately came […]
Coping With COVID: Introduction
Mar 02, 2022
My name is Sonja Bakker, and I will be exploring the impacts of COVID-19 on the U.S. healthcare system’s psychological resources during my senior project. I will specifically focus on the training that general practitioners receive regarding mental health. Ultimately, my goal is to produce a public service announcement video explaining the necessity for pandemic-specific […]