Student Opportunities at Quad Cities Area Hospitals

We understand the value of job shadowing as part of the career exploration process and the importance of helping students gain useful information as to the types of skills and education required for careers within the medical industry.

Job shadow experiences vary in length and give an inside look into what happens within an area of the hospital on a day-to-day basis. This is perfect for high school students with an interest in healthcare, college students needing observation hours for graduate-level program applications, and adults who might be considering a career change.

Note: Job shadowing does not meet the requirements for programs that require clinical contact hours, internship hours, or volunteer and community service hours.

At UnityPoint Health – Quad Cities/Muscatine, we understand the role clinical rotations have in ensuring the best outcome for students, and we take pride in the supervised learning environments our facilities offer. We strive to provide each student with a positive clinical experience where they can implement the lessons they have learned in the classroom while gaining valuable hands-on experience.

Clinical rotations allow groups or co-horts of students to experience an area or department of the hospital at various times throughout the semester and require an affiliation agreement between UnityPoint Health – Quad Cities and the academic institution.

Clinical preceptorships/internships (sometimes also referred to as field work experiences) are one-on-one clinical rotations that can vary in length from a few weeks to several months, depending on your program and course requirements. These are unpaid experiences that relate to your course of study and are usually required to complete your certification, degree, or licensure. An affiliation agreement between UnityPoint Health – Quad Cities and the academic institution must be in place prior to starting this type of placement.

UnityPoint Health – Quad Cities/Muscatine offers non-clinical based experiences in various fields, including but not limited to:

• Accounting
• Infection prevention
• Informatics
• Information technology
• Leadership
• Marketing
• Medical billing/coding

These types of experiences can vary in length from a few weeks to several months, depending on your program and course requirements. Like the clinical experiences referenced in the section above, these non-clinical internships are unpaid experiences that relate to your course of study and are usually required to complete your certification, degree, or licensure. An affiliation agreement between UnityPoint Health – Quad Cities and the academic institution must be in place prior to starting this type of placement.

Structured job shadow days are developed in partnership with academic institutions who would like their students to gain meaningful insight into different types of healthcare roles over a condensed time frame. Participants have an opportunity to interact with several healthcare professionals in their day-to-day roles during this one- or two-day event, providing the opportunity to engage in guided discussions and explore real-world workflows in a supportive, supervised environment.

Get an inside look at our facilities with a guided group tour of our Rock Island hospital. Students will be introduced to a broad overview of hospital operations with key departments and available opportunities highlighted along the way. This is a great way for an academic institution to show undecided students healthcare careers in a group setting.

Do you have a desire to help others? Are you interested in seeing what healthcare looks like from the inside? If so, you're in the right spot. Become a UnityPoint Health volunteer.