{"id":143892,"date":"2022-10-10T14:13:36","date_gmt":"2022-10-10T19:13:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.winonahealth.org\/2022\/10\/10\/meet-colin-keyes-c-s-i-developer\/"},"modified":"2024-03-13T22:44:43","modified_gmt":"2024-03-14T03:44:43","slug":"-35","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.winonahealth.org\/hmn\/2022\/10\/10\/meet-colin-keyes-c-s-i-developer\/","title":{"rendered":"Ntsib Colin Keyes, CSI Developer"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Colin Keyes completed an internship with Winona Health in spring of 2022. Now, a Purdue University (West Lafayette, Indiana) graduate with a bachelor\u2019s degree in Public Health, he joined Winona Health\u2019s Continuous Systems Improvement & Innovation team. He plans to eventually earn his master\u2019s in Public Health. Here, Colin shares his path to Winona Health and what led him to pursue a position here after earning his degree.<\/p>\n<\/div>

<\/i><\/i><\/span>How did you learn about an internship opportunity at Winona Health?<\/span><\/a><\/h4><\/div>
I met Rod Baker, a Purdue alum, through some campus connections. We had a phone interview and then met in person when he happened to be in town. That went well, so I visited Winona to interview with a couple of other people at Winona Health including CEO Rachelle Schultz. What I was interested in aligned with what Winona Health was looking for in a Public Health intern!<\/div><\/div><\/div>

<\/i><\/i><\/span>Is there something about Winona Health that stands out to you?<\/span><\/a><\/h4><\/div>
As a public health major, I was really interested in Winona Health\u2019s work in the area of population health. Everyone here is committed to advancing a community health model where everyone benefits from healthcare services and non-clinical resources that improve people\u2019s lives. I\u2019m so impressed by the innovative ways Winona Health collaborates with other area organizations to help community members and, ultimately, improve peoples\u2019 health. When I was considering whether I wanted to do an internship at Winona Health, I researched the community and learned that Winona is 93% white. That was really intimidating for me to look at. I thought okay I can handle that. It\u2019s not the first time I\u2019ve been one of a very few people of color. What surprised me when I got here is how committed this organization is to diversity, equity and inclusion. At first, I wondered what makes them care so much, but when I got here and started working with the IDEA (Inclusion, Diversity, Equity & Allyship) team, it was abundantly clear that people here DO care about equity and are committed to learning. And it\u2019s not because it affects them personally, but because it matters and they want to do something about it. It\u2019s the commitment to allyship \u2014 and learning about how to be an ally\u2014that makes this commitment so authentic. They want to make sure EVERYONE has access to the care they need regardless of demographics.<\/div><\/div><\/div>

<\/i><\/i><\/span>One of the areas you\u2019ve focused on during your internship is our continuous systems improvement. What observations have you made?<\/span><\/a><\/h4><\/div>
Everyone has the ability to make or propose changes to improve care. There is an organization-wide commitment to and understanding of continuous improvement. Any employee can say, \u201cthis isn\u2019t right,\u201d or \u201cthis could be better,\u201d and propose a change. I find the concept of incremental change inspiring. Winona Health has an ongoing commitment to improvement \u2013 for example, the concept of getting 1% better every day leads to incremental changes that add up to a big difference. Everyone has the ability to make or propose changes to improve care. It also seems like everyone I\u2019ve met at Winona Health wants to be here because they like working at a smaller community healthcare organization. They don\u2019t want to be at a big system. I think they want to be here because they know that they can make a difference here.<\/div><\/div><\/div>

<\/i><\/i><\/span>As someone new to Winona, did anything about our town surprise you?<\/span><\/a><\/h4><\/div>
Art and culture. The presence of the arts in this town is incredible. I was genuinely shocked. Not just visual art, but music and culture. For example, the celebration of other cultures and the representation of the polish culture. The architecture \u2013 from the schools to the banks. The number of national \u2013 and international businesses founded and headquartered here is also surprising. The landscape\u2026I\u2019ve seen hills and mountains, but it\u2019s unique how these bluffs rise up from nowhere. There is just so much here. [Colin: Thinking for a minute] Ok. I\u2019ve also got to say I was surprised by how damn cold it is here. It was storming the day I moved to Winona. We complain about winter in Indiana, but that\u2019s nothing compared to here. I asked someone how they handle a Minnesota winter. They said: Good hat, great gloves. I found out that, for me, mittens are really the only option!<\/div><\/div><\/div>

<\/i><\/i><\/span>What are your thoughts as you reflect on your internship at Winona Health?<\/span><\/a><\/h4><\/div>
I hoped this experience would lead to those \u2018Aha moments\u2019 to supplement my education. This is the best learning experience that I could have imagined. It\u2019s given me experiential learning opportunities, a broad understanding of what happens and what a hospital does every day. I\u2019ve gotten an inside and behind-the-scenes look. There\u2019s so much work and care that is not even visible to patients and their families.<\/div><\/div><\/div>

<\/i><\/i><\/span>What\u2019s next for you?<\/span><\/a><\/h4><\/div>
At this point I can\u2019t say \u2018this is the one problem in healthcare I\u2019d like to fix.\u2019 There are just too many unknowns in healthcare. Things can change fast. Right now, my main goal is to continue to learn how to decrease\/remove barriers so as many people as possible have access to healthcare. Eventually, I see myself focusing on questions like: How can we create policies that bridge gaps in care? What kind of advocacy is needed to ensure that barriers are removed so people have access to the care they need? I\u2019d like to be in a position to help an organization continue to change to meet the changing challenges in providing healthcare to everyone.<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>
<\/div>

Read about Colin’s unexpected and sweet connection!<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":151812,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[124,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-143892","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.winonahealth.org\/hmn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143892","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.winonahealth.org\/hmn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.winonahealth.org\/hmn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.winonahealth.org\/hmn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.winonahealth.org\/hmn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=143892"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.winonahealth.org\/hmn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143892\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":154020,"href":"https:\/\/www.winonahealth.org\/hmn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143892\/revisions\/154020"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.winonahealth.org\/hmn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/151812"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.winonahealth.org\/hmn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=143892"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.winonahealth.org\/hmn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=143892"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.winonahealth.org\/hmn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=143892"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp kev","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}