PORT ANGELES — Clallam County will offer public health internships to University of Washington nursing students under an agreement that county commissioners approved Monday.
Iva Burks, director of the county’s Health and Human Services Department, said the program probably would bring one or two students at a time to the clinic in the Clallam County Courthouse, 223 E. Fourth St.
The length of their internships will depend on the class they are taking, she said, whether for a semester or a whole academic year.
Burks said she hoped the internship opportunity would attract students whose homes are in Clallam County or who would like to live here.
“It’s a chance to light a fire in someone,” she said, “so they’ll want to go into public health.”
No cost to county
The program will cost Clallam County nothing.
Students will come from the UW School of Nursing campuses in Seattle, Bothell and Tacoma.
Details of their internships will be outlined in letters of agreement between the school and the county Health and Human Services Department.
According to the contract commissioners signed Monday, “students will have the status of learners and will not replace training site personnel” and “in no sense be considered employees of the training site.”
They will not be paid for any work they perform.
One of their most valuable services, Burks said, would be to exercise their curiosity.
“Students are wonderful things because they always ask questions,” she said.
Because many of those questions will start with “why,” they will help Health and Human Services evaluate its policies, procedures and practices, Burks said.
