Visiting Graduate Student (Academic Credit) - Simpkins Lab - Department of Neurology - Per Diem (On-site)

About Us:

We are a leading research institution committed to advancing scientific knowledge and innovation. Our team is dedicated to conducting ground breaking research and providing meaningful learning opportunities for aspiring scientists. Join us and contribute to our mission while gaining invaluable experience in a dynamic and collaborative environment.

Dr. Alexis Simpkins invites you to consider this great opportunity to join her dynamic team!

We can only consider applicants who will be able to commute to our Los Angeles location a few times per week. You must reside in the commutable area.

Overview of Department & Mentor

The Neurology Department provides clinical care, quality improvement, and research focused on stroke and cerebrovascular disease. Under the mentorship of Dr. Alexis Simpkins, the graduate intern will support quality-improvement initiatives that strengthen physician staffing processes and patient care coordination across the stroke clinic and related services. Activities may include reviewing staffing and coverage workflows, analyzing appointment and referral data, mapping handoffs among neurology, primary care, rehabilitation, and other services, and finding opportunities to improve timely follow-up and continuity of care. The role is educational and administrative/operational; it does not replace a staff position or involve independent clinical decision-making.

Role Activities & Timeline:

Role Activities and curriculum (skills to be learned) over the course of 1 year:

• Literature review 1 month
• Chart view and redcap entry 7 months
• Manuscript writing last 3 months
• Presentation development 1 month

Career Development mentorship throughout:

• CV building
• Pre-residency neurology prep lectures
• Presentation skills
• Basics of project development and critical thinking for research project development

Systems Access: N/A

Role Summary & Objectives:

This internship is designed for a student enrolled in a master’s program in health administration. The intern will learn how healthcare operations, workforce planning, and care-coordination processes affect access, quality, and patient experience in a stroke-care setting. Working with the mentor and relevant clinic leaders, the intern will define a quality-improvement question, collect and organize de-identified or minimum-necessary operational data, conduct workflow and root-cause analyses, and help develop and evaluate practical interventions related to physician staffing and patient care coordination.

Objectives are to:

1. Assess physician staffing, scheduling, coverage, and workload patterns;
2. Identify barriers to timely referrals, follow-up, and communication across care teams;
3. Develop process maps, dashboards, and recommendations;
4. Learn quality-improvement methods such as PDSA, Lean, process mapping, and run-chart interpretation; and (5) present findings to collaborators in a concise report or presentation. All work will follow institutional privacy, compliance, and quality-improvement/IRB requirements, and the intern will not make independent clinical, staffing, or privileging decisions.

Qualifications

Required Education & Experience

• Must be 18 years of age or older.
• Must have a HS Diploma or GED.
• Must reside in the greater Los Angeles area or surrounding cities while conducting all activities related to the intern or visitor appointment.
• INTERNS: Those participating for academic credit must receive academic credit for the duration of the internship.
• VISITORS: Must be receiving funding from an eligible sponsoring institution (employer, educator, funder, etc.).

Preferred Education, Experience, and Skills:

• Graduate student currently enrolled in a graduate school (Master’s program, PhD, or Medical School).