In honor of National Safety Month, our Environmental Health and Safety Intern, Allison H., sat down to answer a few questions on the importance of EHS and her internship this summer at CONMED!

What interested you in an EHS Internship at CONMED?

I’ve always known that I wanted to work for a medical device company after graduating since I’m currently a biomedical engineering student at Vanderbilt. However, I also have a lot of safety involvement through research projects at school, so this EHS internship at CONMED seemed like the perfect opportunity to combine those two interests and see what type of career I might want after graduation.

How does your academic background or previous experiences relate to the work you're doing in the EHS department?

I’m currently the chief safety officer for an undergraduate research group at Vanderbilt where we’re building an IEC fusion reactor on campus. Through this group, I’ve learned a lot about OSHA standards and their applications by going through the safety approval processes for both the Vanderbilt EHS department and the state of Tennessee. I’ve also gained experience writing safety manuals regarding radiation, electrical, and vacuum/gas safety, which directly applies to my project at CONMED this summer.

What projects/ tasks will you be working on as an EHS intern?

As an EHS intern with an engineering background, I’ll be writing a reference manual for engineers to use when designing new product lines. The goal of this manual will be to get safety involved earlier in the design process, so that less things will be changed after safety inspections are conducted. The manual will include commonly overlooked safety aspects such as how to calculate the amount of vacuum needed for a ventilation system and how to set up assembly line stations in an ergonomically friendly way.

What skills or knowledge do you hope to gain or strengthen during your internship?

Through this internship I’m hoping to gain more comfort and confidence in the corporate environment - especially in terms of expressing opinions, presenting, and working with people from different disciplines and backgrounds.

Interested in a career at CONMED? View our openings, here.