This internship was made possible through our partnership with Trinity Washington University, funded with generous support from The Washington Home aimed at helping grow Washington, DC’s future healthcare workforce.
This interview took place in December 2025.
“My name is Jazmin Galan-Oliva. I was a respite care nurse aide intern at Christ House. I dealt with the patients, doing wound care and assisting with daily needs. I am a Trinity Washington University student majoring in Health Services. I graduate this January and I am pursuing my Masters degree in Public Health at Trinity. I got accepted and I am starting in January.
I wanted to do this internship for the experience of dealing with people in another subset of underserved community. I dealt with people with intellectual disabilities at the special Olympics, in the health and wellness side. I wanted to set foot in different communities where there are disparities and where there is a gap. I don’t know where it will take me, but what I want to do career wise is help people get resources and shorten that gap a little bit, as far as health disparities.
I learned a lot. I enjoy the staff and everything. What’s fun is seeing the different personalities in each patient, the turn around- I would see them at their worst and they would get better at such a shorter time span than I would have expected, because of the daily care they get here and how we do it. Seeing the impact that we really have on the patients to be better- I see Mr. W sitting outside, his leg was bad and he got better. Seeing him better now at Kairos House, he seems so much better.
All of the patients impact me every day. I learn little things about them every day. Even going back home to my house and having my family there, realizing that I am their [patients] support while they are here and I have so much support at home, and they might just have me here. Being that resource and the connection with their provider, we get to know them more, we spend a lot of time with them.
I expected more people to be here for longer than they were- I see people get better quickly here. It’s amazing. I don’t expect that. My mom broke her ankle in 2021, and got nerve damage from the anesthesia. It’s such a long time healing… here, they have even worse wounds, and they get healed quickly.
Personality-wise, at the beginning, the patients don’t know if they can trust us because they are in a situation where you can’t trust many people. Mentally, they were often in a bad place. They don’t know where they are going, so coming here, right now, they know they are getting taken care of. As the days or weeks pass, their personalities come out more and they aren’t stand-offish anymore.”
What skills did you improve on?
“I feel like I am not a people person, but like, I was open to it. Now I can manage having a conversation with a person more, because every day you meet a new person and need to conversate with them. Having topics to speak to them about, how are you doing, this or that, trying those conversation starters, it helps me. I’m not very outgoing. It is easier for me to speak with people and used to being a people person. In the career path that I am going towards, I have to be, because I am connecting people with other people.”
How was it working on the medical floor at Christ House?
“I love it upstairs, I love everybody, everyone was so nice. I think it’s fun- every day we work together. We communicate a lot. It’s different compared to other places that I’d been working with. It’s more organized here, which I like. There is a lot of communication, we have a lot to deal with. Everyone treats each other like family. We always ask each other how life is going. Not only do we care about the patients and the work we are doing, but we care about each other.”
How did this internship prepare you for your next role?
“The hands-on experience doing wound-care is great, especially if you are a nursing student. Dealing with patients, taking vitals, getting a clinical aspect. I wanted to do the clinical side because my career path will be more administrative, but I wanted to get the clinical side as well to see what it is like. I should know how the clinical side works. With the major I am doing, I want to work non-profit and help people and give resources, but I could also work at a hospital or in the administrative side of healthcare.”
What was meaningful to you during this internship?
“I talk with the guys, I can do stuff for them and they say thank you all the time. Recently, I was dealing with Mr. H, I was working a Sunday and he told me his leg was hurting. I asked him questions and told him we would check up on him. A few days later, I asked him about his leg, and he said “How did you remember my leg was hurting?” I think that at that moment, he realized that I really did care because I remembered. Every guy thanks us because they know that we care and we want them to get better and be more stable than they were before. Getting the thank-you’s, seeing them outside and they are better and come and visit and say “Hi, how are you, haven’t seen you in a long time, how you been?” like Mr. B came and thanked us the other day. Having those experiences and knowing that someway or somehow, left a little imprint on their memories, it’s the best thing. I feel like I really did help, even if at the time it felt like I didn’t do enough, but to them it is a lot because they feel like nobody cares until you talk to them and have these conversations.”
What can we do to improve the internship experience here for future students?
“Honestly, nothing. I had a great time here. For you to actually learn what you’re doing, you have to do it. I’m that type of person- I have to do it for me to remember and learn it. Maybe if somebody has a different learning style…
The way they taught me upstairs, I physically looked at them do it and then I did it. I like that type of learning- for me, I wouldn’t change anything. I liked slowly getting introduced to things, watching and then actually doing and helping on the floor.
For me personally, when I see things that I haven’t done or maybe know I can do but I am too scared to apply- take the chance, apply! Don’t be scared. When I read “fast-paced environment”, it is fast-paced but its bearable, it’s not like so fast that you can’t learn and focus. Little things that might intimidate you aren’t as bad when you try it- give it a chance. You might feel like you’re not qualified- just apply and see what happens!”
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