Visiting Graduate Student (Academic Credit)

About the Role

Dr. Alexis Simpkins invites applications for a Visiting Graduate Student position within the Department of Neurology. This role is focused on quality-improvement initiatives in stroke and cerebrovascular disease care, offering a valuable learning experience in a research and clinical setting. The position is per diem and requires on-site presence a few times per week in Los Angeles.

Role Activities & Timeline

• Literature review: 1 month
• Chart view and RedCap entry: 7 months
• Manuscript writing: Last 3 months
• Presentation development: 1 month

Career Development Mentorship

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

Role Summary & Objectives

This internship is designed for a student enrolled in a master’s program in health administration. The intern will gain an understanding of how healthcare operations, workforce planning, and care-coordination processes impact access, quality, and patient experience in a stroke-care setting. The role is educational and administrative/operational, and does not involve independent clinical decision-making.

Objectives

• Assess physician staffing, scheduling, coverage, and workload patterns.
• Identify barriers to timely referrals, follow-up, and communication across care teams.
• Develop process maps, dashboards, and recommendations.
• Learn quality-improvement methods such as PDSA, Lean, process mapping, and run-chart interpretation.
• Present findings to collaborators in a concise report or presentation.

Key Responsibilities

• Support quality-improvement initiatives to strengthen physician staffing processes and patient care coordination.
• Review staffing and coverage workflows.
• Analyze appointment and referral data.
• Map handoffs among neurology, primary care, rehabilitation, and other services.
• Identify opportunities to improve timely follow-up and continuity of care.
• Define a quality-improvement question.
• Collect and organize de-identified or minimum-necessary operational data.
• Conduct workflow and root-cause analyses.
• Help develop and evaluate practical interventions related to physician staffing and patient care coordination.

Requirements & Tech Stack

• This role is for academic credit.
• Requires enrollment in a master's program in health administration.
• Must be able to commute to the Los Angeles location a few times per week.
• Must reside in the commutable area.

Qualifications

• 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.
• Must be receiving academic credit for the duration of the internship.
• Preferred: Graduate student currently enrolled in a graduate school (Master’s program, PhD, or Medical School).