LHSI Intern: End-of-life Medical Decision Making

Program Summary:  

This internship is offered as a part of the Life-Health Sciences Internship Program (LHSI). This program connects 125 IUI undergraduates per year with internships on campus with faculty and staff in a variety of health and science related campus areas/programs. All LHSI internships start in August 2025 and end in May 2026 and are paid $13/hour for up to 10 hours per week. Work-study is accepted but not required. 

Supervisor: Dr. Amber Comer

Department/Office: Health and Human Sciences; Health Sciences

Overview of the internship site: This clinical research seeks to understand how end-of-life medical treatment decisions are made for hospitalized patients. When faced with acute illness and hospitalization, patients, families, and clinicians often face difficult, time-sensitive decisions about whether to continue or forgo life sustaining treatments. This research seeks to better understand decisions surrounding life sustaining treatments and goals of care, including the use of Do Not Resuscitate orders, mechanical ventilation, ICU utilization, hospice referrals, discharge location, mortality, and advance directives/ POLST forms. This research would be of good practical use for anyone interested in a profession in health care as it will provide exposure to clinical medical records and hospitalized patients.

Website for more information: https://shhs.iupui.edu/connect/directory/comer-amber.html

Work Environment and Dress Code: The work is performed primarily in an office setting with dress code: n/a

Essential Duties and Responsibilities:

-Conduct original research with patients or within the patient's electronic medical record.

-Attend research team meetings.

Hours per week: flexible based on student needs (10 maximum), scheduling is flexible other than attending team research meetings which are always scheduled around classes.

Project-specific qualifications: Conduct original research; Collect data from patient medical charts; Discuss research results; and the applicability of the findings to the practice of medicine.

By the end of the LHSI program, you will:

·        Carefully consider, explore, and articulate your career goals, including an analysis of how you arrived at that path and what steps you need to take next. (Community Contributor, Communicator)

·        Understand your role and strengths on a professional team and analyze who you would like to become as a professional. (Communicator)

·        Gain and strengthen skills relevant to next steps after graduation, such as communication, collaboration, teamwork, analysis/synthesis/evaluation, independence, confronting/challenging failure, problem-solving and perseverance, and constructive criticism. (Problem Solver, Communicator)

·        Convey ideas and knowledge effectively through an ePortfolio and presentation of your internship work. (Problem Solver, Communicator)

·        Set and meet your own additional learning goals identified with your supervisor.

LHSI Qualifications  

·        must be graduating May 2027 or after (usually a current freshman or sophomore in Spring 2024)   

·        Current full-time IUI undergraduate

·        minimum overall GPA of 2.0 

·        All majors welcome

To apply:

LHSI accepts at least 125 interns per year. Complete the application for LHSI at lhsi.indianapolis.iu.edu and select 3-4 internship sites on that application. All available sites are listed in Handshake and will start with the position title “LHSI Intern.” You will meet with at least 2 of these if selected for interviews.