Exeter Hospital Intern Program a Success

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When Joseph St. Peter headed off for his freshman year of college this fall to begin working toward his career goal of becoming a physician’s assistant, he already had a good idea of what to expect.

St. Peter, 18, of Exeter, spent two months this spring completing an internship at Core General Surgery thanks to a partnership between and the . As a student in the Health Science Technologies program at SST, St. Peter received credit for the internship which required him to spend three days a week, at least two hours per day, at the Core General Surgery practice on Hampton Road in Exeter. 

Billi Petroski, a medical assistant at the practice, served as St. Peter’s preceptor during his internship.

“Having completed this internship, I have learned so much more than any textbook could teach me,” St. Peter said. “I was able to observe many office procedures, which was my favorite part of the internship.”

Petroski, 27, brought a unique perspective to the internship as she herself was a former intern in the same program when she attended the SST in 2002. While she initially considered going to college to become a physician’s assistant, she switched to a medical assistant program and found a great fit professionally in a job at Core General Surgery, where she has worked as a medical assistant for the past six years.

She was thrilled to be able to then offer that same real world experience to St. Peter this spring. He was able to shadow her and Christopher Roseberry, MD, Core General Surgery, from initial patient consultations, to inpatient surgical procedures such as minor skin lesions, vein surgeries and suturing.

Students go through an orientation at the human resources department where the internship program is managed by Julie Bailey RN, nursing development specialist, Exeter Hospital and Kimberly Marineau, a career development specialist, Exeter Hospital. The two meet with students to familiarize them with issues that they need to take into account during their internship such as patient confidentiality laws and hospital procedures.

 “We have the ability to show these students what careers are available to them while also giving them a sense of what is involved with those careers,” Marineau said. “As the community’s hospital, this seems like a natural way for us to be involved with the youth in our own community.”

St. Peter is now starting his freshman year at the University of New Hampshire where he is majoring in Biomedical Sciences. He credits the internship with giving him a head start on his studies and urged high school students to learn more about it if they are interested in a career in the healthcare field. “Go ahead and check it out,” he said. “These opportunities are not available everywhere, and it is a once in a lifetime chance to really get a feel for what you may want to do for a future career.”