Shayaana Ubhayaratne, a senior in the Bachelor of Science in Health Informatics program at Pitt.
In the summer of her junior year, University of Pittsburgh Bachelor of Science in Health Informatics student Shayaana Ubhayaratne completed her internship with the UPMC IT Summer Associate Program. Now a senior graduating in the spring, Ubhayaratne was offered not one but two jobs after graduating—from UPMC and also from RSM US, which she accepted, joining the 90% of graduates from the program who are employed upon graduation.
During their time in the program, Health Informatics undergraduate students must complete a three-credit internship that furthers their understanding of the course material through real-world experience. The Department of Health Information Management has affiliation agreements with over 148 clinical sites, creating an array of opportunities for students to explore.
Preparing for an Internship in the Health Informatics Program
Ubhayaratne said the program provides students with ample resources to acquire their internships, including a list of clinical sites where previous students have worked, and inviting alumni to speak about their internship experiences.
“The program sets people up really well to get an internship,” Ubhayaratne said. “The faculty are very upfront about when to start looking for them and providing us with resources. We have one class that teaches us all about health care and hospital systems. But in that class, Dr. Anania Firouzan (now retired, position currently led by Taylor Cronauer) is also the clinical education coordinator for the program, so she brings in speakers from different companies and they talk about the internships they have to offer.”
Ubhayaratne applied for over 40 internships around the country and across a variety of disciplines, including consulting, quality management, business analytics, banking and insurance. She said this ability to extend her health informatics degree across professions makes it a very marketable and desirable career choice.
“Something great about the health informatics major is that you can apply it to anything,” Ubhayaratne said. “It can be insurance, it can be health care, it can be finance. There are so many ways that you can market yourself with our major to get an internship and a full-time job.”
Interning with UPMC
Shayaana Ubhayaratne with a fellow intern after completing their Report-Out presentation to summarize her summer internship with UPMC IT.
Ultimately, Ubhayaratne was offered an internship with the UPMC IT Summer Associate Program, one of her top choices and a common clinical site for students in the program. Interns are assigned to a particular department within UPMC IT. Ubhayaratne was placed at the Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh, spending 40-45 hours a week working on the PC Support team.
“I love working in a hospital, so I got really lucky that I was placed in Children's Hospital on their PC Support team,” Ubhayaratne said. “It was really technical for me, but I wasn't expecting to know everything going in, which I feel like is what scares people a lot about internships. But in the real world, they teach you everything you need to know.”
During the first half of her internship, Ubhayaratne mainly assisted with UPMC’s transfer to the Epic software systems. In her coursework, Ubhayaratne learned to utilize software very similar to Epic, which greatly benefitted her during the internship.
“Working on the Epic transition was really helpful because I was directly using things that I learned in class in my internship,” Ubhayaratne said. “I spent that first half of the internship jumping right into scoping devices in the hospital. We would go to each unit and write down and map out all the devices for the Epic team. I really liked it because I got to talk to so many nurses and doctors and ultimately learn my way around the hospital.”
The second half of her internship focused on three separate projects, where she was tasked with the ticket queue doing help desk work, focusing on hardware and assisting with the aesthetics team.
In Demand with Two Job Offers
One of the major benefits of the UPMC internship is that it can lead to a full-time position, which Ubhayaratne was granted. However, she was also offered a position after graduation with RSM US in Pennsylvania as a health care technology consulting associate, which she accepted.
“I am super excited about this position because I didn’t think I’d be able to go into consulting right after graduation,” Ubhayaratne said. “This is just another positive of the Health Informatics program.”
With her senior year coming to a close and a full-time position already lined up right after graduation, Ubhayaratne said she is grateful for the experiences she has had so far in this program. For prospective and current students, she urges that their internships, like hers, will be worthwhile.
“All the internships that you could end up with in this major are great and you have so many options with it and so many people willing to help as well,” Ubhayaratne said. “As long as you’re able to communicate and you’re willing to learn, that’s all you need.”
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For more information about the Bachelor of Science in Health Informatics program, visit our website, or speak with an enrollment specialist at enroll@shrs.pitt.edu!