By Denise Williams | News & Views
When Andrew Schlosser, MS, CPT, was studying for his degree in exercise science, working in cardiac rehabilitation couldn’t have been further from his mind. He’d planned to go into the field of personal training after graduating from Pennsylvania’s Westchester University, but a tip changed the whole trajectory of his career.
An instructor pulled the college junior aside to offer a crucial nugget of advice for fulfilling his internship requirement: instead of jockeying with all of the other exercise science majors to land a spot at a sports performance gym or other traditional setting, he might want to consider getting his hands dirty in cardiac rehab. The third-year student hadn’t even really heard of the discipline; but he followed through on the recommendation and embarked on an immersive summer internship during his final year of undergrad.
When he exited the program at Lancaster General Health of Penn Medicine 12 weeks later, Schlosser says he not only felt prepared for a career using his degree, but he also had a newfound appreciation for the space that delivered his hands-on learning. Personal training was out, and cardiac rehab was IN!
Schlosser went on to grad school for exercise and sports science; but even before he completed his coursework, he was hired on as a full-time exercise physiologist at MainLine Health (MLH). He started work in January 2022, receiving his master’s that spring. Today, the 27-year-old shuttles back and forth between the cardiac rehab at Bryn Mawr Hospital and the cardiac and pulmonary maintenance center at MLH’s Newton Square location. He credits the internship – or, specifically, the ensuing conversation between the manager of the cardiac rehab at Lancaster General and the director of the cardiac rehab at Newton Square – for earning him the slot.
Getting a Leg Up on the Competition
Schlosser’s journey is the kind that puts a smile on the face of Mike Dunlap, EP/PD, FAACVPR, manager of cardiac rehabilitation at CarolinaEast Health System in New Bern, North Carolina. As he prepares for his retirement on September 1, the former educator with a longtime passion for helping students can recount many similar stories that he’s tucked away in his memory over the years. There are the graduates who eventually accepted positions within the very same rehab where they interned, for example. There’s the exercise physiologist who completed her internship there, then went on to nursing school – equipping her with an unusual, but highly marketable, combination of skills. Another intern now works at the illustrious Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. He could go on. But then, there’s also his own story.
It's another example, Dunlap says, of just how far the weight a well-done internship carries in the field of cardiac rehabilitation. The discipline was still in its infancy when Dunlap first dabbled in it under the tutelage of the woman who launched the first program in the state of South Dakota where, at the time, he was attending graduate school for exercise physiology. He ended up spending seven years as a teacher and was considering going back to school for nuclear medicine when his mentor looked him up out of the blue. Based exclusively on her past experience with him as a student, she offered him a job at a rehab in Dickinson, North Dakota. Although he was on a completely different path, it was the internship he did years early that changed his professional course for good. The work eventually led him 11 years ago to New Bern, where he preaches the moral of that story to the students coming through his program. “I tell every student intern ‘you want me to be on your reference list!” he shares. “If you’ve worked with me 150-400 hours and did a great job, I’ll be happy to share that experience with anyone who calls me.”
That’s because, from Dunlap’s perspective, an internship is essentially a “400-hour job interview.” (Schlosser’s was actually 480 hours, but who’s counting?) That exposure is invaluable to employers and gives former interns an edge over other candidates, both gentlemen agree. “If there’s a position at a hospital and I get 12 applicants, the two or three who have had internships in cardiac rehab are probably going to get the interview,” Dunlap acknowledges. “To take a new hire who has zero experience in cardiac rehab means basically giving them [what amounts to] an internship.” It’s no mystery why a recent graduate who’s already learned the nuts and bolts – medical terminology, the proper way to check blood pressure, interpretation of EKG charts, how to perform assessments and more – is more likely to be offered a position than an applicant with book learning only.
Salting the Horse’s Food
Those fundamental skills are only part of what students take with them from an internship, Dunlap and Schlosser emphasize. People and life skills are important part of the training, too.
Schlosser says he felt “totally prepared” for the grind of the mainstream workforce after reporting to cardiac rehab training eight hours a day, five days a week for 12 weeks. The schedule made him appreciate the value in prioritizing rest and going to bed at a decent time, for example, so that he could perform at his best the next day on the rehab floor. Importantly, he adds, he learned to “read” people. “It taught me how to communicate with and work alongside other healthcare professionals,” he explains. “It also taught me how to handle all different types of people because, with patients, you have a lot of different personalities. Some like to talk, others like to be left alone.”
True, Dunlap co-signs, but he says people skills go beyond even that. At CarolinaEast's cardiac rehab, the goal is to instill confidence in future CR professionals and “empower [them] to empower the patients.” Having the technical skills is one thing, he asserts, but it isn’t impactful without the ability to motivate people. He references a common idiom: You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink. “Our job is to salt the horse’s food!” Dunlap argues. “So, when you’re talking to people who’ve smoked their whole lives, been obese and haven’t exercised one step, you’d better have a pretty good sales pitch. All these blood pressure skills and EKG rhythm skills, knowing all the numbers for diabetes and so on … it isn’t going to mean a whole heck of a lot if you can’t convince the person that we can’t do it for them.” And that’s the ultimate skill he hopes interns will garner from their time in his program: the ability to cite the science to patients and persuade them to consider making very important changes, with the help of a cardiac rehab professional.
For all the benefits an internship offers students, Dunlap points out the advantages for host programs. He’s encountered some that view internships as a hindrance rather than a help. Contrary to the opinion that they create more work, he sees them as an asset. Interns provide busy programs with an extra pair of hands – for free! They generally do whatever’s asked of them – even the jobs the rehab staff don’t want to do themselves – and the patients tend to enjoy and appreciate their energy and enthusiasm. At the same time, Dunlap adds, the act of teaching by doing keeps rehab staff “on their toes” with best practices. Thus, he concludes, both intern and program win.
Cardiac rehabs that want to explore the possibilities should communicate that to the dean or chair of the exercise physiology program or whatever applicable major is offered at local colleges and universities, Dunlap suggests. He also urges them to find opportunities through AACVPR or state affiliate websites. After all, he says, “Students are our future; they’re the lifeblood of our profession!”