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This article was written for Greystone.Net by Jessica Levco, a freelance healthcare writer and event strategist.
Have you thought about bringing on an intern or two to your hospital marketing department for next summer? If so, you might like this story about how Virtua Health created its healthcare marketing internship program.
Virtua Health started its marketing internship in 2022 with one intern. This past summer, they welcomed seven interns to their team. Caitlin Coyle, a senior project manager at Virtua Health, worked together with HR to formalize the recruiting process and structure the internship program. As a Millennial, Coyle has fond memories of being an intern when she was in college, and is dedicated to providing a positive internship experience for the next generation of healthcare marketers.
Last summer, each intern worked Tuesday through Thursday, about 24 hours each. Coyle says having the interns come into the office brought a renewed sense of energy and excitement to the marketing team as a whole.
“It was really fun to get their perspectives because in healthcare, it can be challenging to figure out how to talk to the Gen Z audience,” Coyle says. “Our team really liked getting ideas from them and how they’re thinking about their health.”
Running an internship program while still doing her own job requires structure, Coyle says. She starts thinking about staffing as early as February, gauging what projects will need coverage before deciding how many interns to bring on.
Throughout the program, interns submit a short recap at the end of each week of what they did and what they’re working on. Coyle uses her Mondays and Fridays to focus on what the interns are doing and to plan their upcoming projects.
“It’s a lot of work, but very rewarding,” Coyle says. “When you’re doing a program like this, it’s important to have patience. The first draft of what they do might not be what you’re used to, but it’s not fair to compare it to the work you get from your peers.”
Each intern was encouraged to explore an area of marketing that appealed to them the most. For example, one intern was embedded with Virtua’s in-house creative studio, going out on video shoots and editing footage. One intern supported the supply chain department with internal communications. Another supported the brand and design team on print and digital assets. Four others produced content. This was a mix of writing articles, conducting SEO and AEO research for the hospital’s YouTube page and auditing which topics and formats were most likely to perform well across Virtua Health’s service lines.
Hannah Puc, a junior at Bucknell University studying management and organizations while also on the pre-med track, said her favorite project was building out a full year-long content calendar for a partner Facebook page, the Burlington Camden County Regional Chronic Disease Coalition. She also worked on YouTube optimization, rewriting titles and descriptions and remaking thumbnails, and got pulled into Virtua’s studio and podcast work, too.
Puc says another highlight was when the hospital’s CEO, Dennis Pullin, came to the marketing department and did a Q&A with the interns. Puc was impressed that Pullin made time in his day to talk to the group, and asked a series of thought-provoking questions like, “If you were the head of the marketing department, what would you do tomorrow?,” “What are we missing as a marketing department?” and “How can we reach Gen Z?”
Chrisie Scott, SVP and CMO at Virtua Health, says another important aspect of the program was to build moments that remind them why their work is meaningful. On their last day as interns, Scott held a “light maker” session. Each intern picked a mason jar filled with a string of lights, in whatever color spoke to them. Scott told them a single light isn’t much on its own, but strung together with other lights, and other people, it becomes something brighter.
“Marketing is about making light,” Scott says. “We shine light on science, medicine and the things people can do to take care of themselves and the people they love.”
