This summer, Independence Blue Cross (IBC) introduced a new IBC Social Mission Initiative, the Nursing Internship Program. Four senior La Salle University nursing students, Steven Szablewski, Elise Keppler, Olena Protsko, and Victoria Hafner, participated in the program at IBC Headquarters in Philadelphia. This program which was developed to address the shortage of nurses and nurse educators, provides scholarships and practical experiences to undergraduate and graduate nursing students.

IBC started distributing scholarships through the Nurse Scholars Program in 2004. The Nursing Internship Program is the second phase of this program and was designed to 1) give students a behind-the-scenes look at how managed health care works and 2) use IBC as a real world learning laboratory to bridge the gap between the clinical material taught in the classroom and the actual practice of health administration in a business setting.

IBC selected 10 nursing students from La Salle, Villanova, the Brandywine School of Nursing, Thomas Jefferson University, and the University of Pennsylvania to participate in its pilot IBC Nurse Internship Program this summer.

Click here to view photos from the IBC Internship Awards