Visiting Graduate Student (Academic Credit) - Simpkins Lab - Department of Neurology - Per Diem (On-site)
About The Position
The Visiting Graduate Student will support quality-improvement initiatives in the Neurology Department focused on physician staffing processes and patient care coordination across the stroke clinic and related services. The educational and administrative/operational role is conducted under the mentorship of Dr. Alexis Simpkins and 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 stroke care. With the mentor and relevant clinic leaders, the intern will define a quality-improvement question, organize de-identified or minimum-necessary operational data, conduct workflow and root-cause analyses, and help develop and evaluate practical interventions. The role does not replace a staff position and does not involve independent clinical, staffing, or privileging decisions. All work must follow institutional privacy, compliance, and quality-improvement/IRB requirements. The one-year curriculum includes a literature review (one month), chart review and REDCap entry (seven months), manuscript writing (the final three months), and presentation development (one month). Career-development mentorship throughout the appointment includes CV building, pre-residency neurology preparation lectures, presentation skills, and fundamentals of project development and critical thinking for research project development. Applicants must be able to commute to the Los Angeles location a few times per week and reside in the commutable area. Systems access is listed as not applicable.
Requirements
- Must be at least 18 years of age.
- Must have a high school diploma or GED.
- Must reside in the greater Los Angeles area or surrounding cities while conducting activities related to the intern or visitor appointment.
- Applicants participating as interns for academic credit must receive academic credit for the duration of the internship.
- Visitors must receive funding from an eligible sponsoring institution, such as an employer, educator, or funder.
- Must be able to commute to the Los Angeles location a few times per week.
- Work must follow institutional privacy, compliance, and quality-improvement/IRB requirements.
Nice To Haves
- Currently enrolled as a graduate student in graduate school, such as a master’s program, PhD program, or medical school.
Responsibilities
- Assess physician staffing, scheduling, coverage, and workload patterns.
- Identify barriers to timely referrals, follow-up, and communication across care teams.
- Review staffing and coverage workflows and analyze appointment and referral data.
- Map handoffs among neurology, primary care, rehabilitation, and other services.
- Define a quality-improvement question with the mentor and relevant clinic leaders.
- Collect and organize de-identified or minimum-necessary operational data.
- Conduct workflow and root-cause analyses.
- Develop process maps, dashboards, and recommendations.
- Help develop and evaluate practical interventions related to physician staffing and patient care coordination.
- Learn and apply quality-improvement methods, including PDSA, Lean, process mapping, and run-chart interpretation.
- Present findings to collaborators in a concise report or presentation.
- Complete curriculum activities including literature review, chart review and REDCap entry, manuscript writing, and presentation development.
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What This Job Offers
Career Level
Intern
Education Level
High school or GED
