For Kinesiology students, an internship is an opportunity to take what they have learned in the classroom and apply it in a professional setting. For Hayden Stamp, that meant spending the summer working with patients in cardiac rehabilitation.
Hayden completed his internship at Bon Secours Cardiac Rehabilitation in Mechanicsville, Virginia, where he worked alongside clinical staff caring for patients participating in medically supervised exercise programs.
His responsibilities went well beyond simply observing. Hayden assisted patients during exercise sessions, performed submaximal exercise testing, and helped design and progress individualized exercise prescriptions. He monitored patients’ ECGs, symptoms, and blood pressure during exercise and provided education on safe exercise techniques and the use of the rating of perceived exertion, or RPE, scale.
The experience gave Hayden the opportunity to put Kinesiology into practice while developing the clinical and interpersonal skills required to work directly with patients.
Longwood Kinesiology students regularly complete internships at the Mechanicsville cardiac rehabilitation program, but Hayden made a particularly strong impression.
“We send students there each summer, and they’re always pleased with our students,” his Longwood internship supervisor said. “But they did not want to give Hayden back.”
After graduating from Longwood, Hayden plans to attend medical school. His experience in cardiac rehabilitation has given him an opportunity to see firsthand how exercise, physiology, patient education, and clinical care come together.
Hayden’s internship is one example of the many ways Kinesiology students can use their undergraduate coursework beyond the classroom, while exploring where their interests might take them next.