A rewarding and eye opening internship!

Hi everyone,

Like many of you I have now completed my PR placement. I was able to obtain my internship at St John Ambulance. Some of you may have read my previous blog’s but for those of you have not I will recap some of the exciting and eye opening experiences I have seen throughout the duration of my internship. I was fortunate enough to be able to witness first hand the many tasks of a PR Officer. These areas included media relations, internal communications, photo shoots and crisis management!

The more ‘routine’ tasks which I undertook were compiling media contact lists for certain rural newspapers to announce the volunteers who had achieved awards for their contributions. This was interesting as it emphasizes the key areas from the PR Media unit. I also wrote numerous stories which will be published in the Bulletin, which is the quarterly internal magazine St John Ambulance releases to employees and volunteers. I have also learnt that there is a lot of talking done in PR, especially on the phone. You must be confident and not afraid to ask questions if you are unfamiliar with the topic of interest. If in doubt… pick up the phone and call someone!

Now to the more exciting things…

I was lucky enough to be able to witness the three major photo shoots which are undertaken by St John Ambulance every 3 years. The first photo shoot was the metro photo shoot that uses Ambulance paramedics from the city and surrounding suburbs. This shoot was taken at the Barrack street Jetty and in Northbridge. I was actually part of this shoot as I played the patient in the back of the ambulance. The second shoot was taken for the VFAS (volunteers). This was shot at Government house. The third photo shoot was taken at the head office in Belmont and involved the Directors and council members.

I was able to see first hand, the effort behind organizing a press conference. I was able to witness two of these whilst I was doing my internship. These were for the tragic event when the man was killed by the ambulance and when there were pay disputes occurring. These opened my eyes to how important it is to maintain a positive relationship with the media you are dealing with.

I was very fortunate to be able to experience such a vast array of PR elements whilst doing my placement. The experience has been very rewarding and inspiring. I am still anxious about going out into the big wide world of PR but I feel more prepared after knowing that all the units we have learnt at university can be applied to the workplace.

Good luck to everyone who is in their final days of their placement and to everyone who is writing their final reports! I also wish everyone the best of luck with their careers and I am sure we may all cross paths one day.

Sarah