Internship Handbook | Open Healthcare Network

1. Introduction

This handbook serves as a comprehensive guide for interns joining the Open Healthcare Network, detailing the processes, expectations, and guidelines to ensure a successful internship experience.

2. About Open Healthcare Network

Open Healthcare Network is an innovative, open-source initiative powered by a diverse team of volunteers and experts. Its flagship project, CARE, was created during the COVID-19 pandemic and is recognized as a Digital Public Good by the United Nations.

Currently, CARE's tele ICU system supports the 10BedICU project, active in 9 states, impacting over 40,000 lives.

Read more about Open Healthcare Network & 10BedICU

3. Onboarding & Training

Interns onboarded will receive access to:

• Training Modules: Tailored to help interns quickly get up to speed on our tools and technology
• Slack Community: A collaborative space for interacting with peers, mentors, and team members

3.1 Training

Our internship emphasizes on-the-go training, allowing interns to dive into real-world projects immediately. Based on their selection, interns are expected to have sufficient knowledge to contribute from day one.

Training Modules:

• Django for all - This module will equip interns with essential Django concepts which are critical for building and maintaining the backend systems for CARE.
• CARE 101 - deals in detail with all the different functions and uses of the CARE which allows interns to get familiar with the tool.

The community support system, mentors, and review calls serve as platforms for interns to ask questions, seek clarification, and receive guidance as they work on issues.

Interns are encouraged to learn from each other through community interactions and collaborative problem-solving.

This approach ensures that interns gain practical, relevant experience while contributing to real projects from the start of their internship.

3.2 Slack Community

Open Healthcare Network community operates over slack and interns will have access to specific Slack channels during their internship period. These channels are designed to foster collaboration, facilitate communication, and any other support throughout the program.

Channel	Description
care_general	This is the primary channel for general announcements, updates, and discussions
care_product	For all product related queries, ideation and discussions
care_engineering	For all engineering related discussion and doubt clarifications
watercooler	A casual space for sharing interesting articles, or discuss non-work-related topics

The Community Manager will serve as the first point of contact for any general issues or concerns. Will be overseeing students' performance weekly and support struggling students as required.

Join slack community by visiting https://slack.ohc.network

4. How to get started

Interns are responsible for picking up issues to stay active and get stipend.

Refer to the contributors guide to get started with the internship journey.

5. Review

During the internship period, interns will have regular reviews to ensure quality outcome and guidance:

• Daily Reports: Daily short update on work done to be shared over slack channel end of every day
• EOD calls: Daily 30-minute check-ins via Zoom at 7:30 PM to share updates and address doubts
• Weekly Review calls: Mandatory 1-hour Zoom call every Tuesday at 7:30 PM for all interns to receive real-time feedback from senior engineers
• Pull Request - Q&A and code review: All PRs will go through a Q&A check. PRs that pass the Q&A will be shared with engineers for code review. Only merged PRs will be counted towards story point allocation for the month, so plan your submissions accordingly

Attendance for review calls are mandatory to maintain active status.

6. Mandatory guidelines to be followed

General Guidelines

The internship is fully remote, offering interns the flexibility to work according to their own schedule. However, onboarded interns are required to join the scheduled weekly calls and submit a daily report, even if it's a 'no work done' report, to ensure consistent communication and progress tracking.

Work Expectations and Monitoring

• Interns can go through the training modules while picking up issues and working on the same
• Interns will be responsible for selecting issues and working on them to meet their monthly story point requirements. They should not wait for mentors to assign tasks
• When selecting an issue to work on, review its scope, complexity, and effort required, and suggest an appropriate story point value in your request to the core team. The core team will review and approve or adjust the story points before assigning the issue. Upon completion, the approved story points will be awarded and contribute toward your monthly stipend.
• Only merged Pull Requests (PRs) will be considered for story point and stipend payouts
• All interns are expected to submit fully functional PRs. The review process should not be relied upon to correct incomplete or low-quality work
• Any doubts must be clarified with team members before submitting the PR to ensure it meets the required standards
• PRs submitted by interns will be reviewed to ensure that they are not attempting to game the system by completing low-effort issues to accumulate story points
• Avoid Issue Hoarding: Interns should not take on more issues than they can manage. Work should begin immediately after assignment
• Avoid Abandoning Issues: If an issue is beyond your capabilities, inform the community manager and explain why

Review Mechanism

• Mandatory daily EOD report submission on Slack
• Weekly Review Call: Mandatory attendance every Tuesday from 7:30 PM to 8:30 PM
• Daily EOD Calls: Monday through Saturday at 7:30 PM (minimum one attendance per week required)
• Individual review calls scheduled as needed

Leave Policy

During the 6-month internship period, each intern can take a maximum of 1 month of unpaid leave, subject to prior communication and approval from the Community Manager.

Management Authority

The team reserves the right to restructure the internship structure anytime without prior notice.

Communication and Requests

• All communications and queries must use the OHC community Slack channel
• All leave requests, daily report absences, call absences, and emergencies must be communicated to the Community Manager in advance

7. Stipend Payout

Interns are onboarded with either a fixed or variable stipend structure. Please refer to your offer letter for your specific stipend type and conditions.

7.1 Variable Stipend Structure

Base Pay

Story Points (in a month)	Base Pay (in INR)
5	2,000
10	5,000
15	9,000
20	14,000
25	20,000

Note:

• Each issue is assigned story points based on complexity and size
• Base pay is tied to monthly story points achieved
• Fewer than 5 story points results in no pay for that period
• Performance multipliers apply to base pay

Performance Multiplier

Your multiplier is determined by your best performance over the past 2 months.

Story Points Achievement	Multiplier	Maximum Potential Pay
5-9 points	1.10x	₹2,200
10-14 points	1.15x	₹5,750
15-19 points	1.25x	₹11,250
20-24 points	1.30x	₹18,200
25 points	1.35x	₹27,000

7.2 Fixed Stipend Structure

For interns on a fixed stipend, monthly stipend release depends on satisfactory performance. Regular performance reviews will ensure alignment with quality expectations.

8. What leads to drop off from the program

Actions that lead to drop off from the internship program:

• Failure to submit daily reports for two consecutive weeks
• Missing two weekly review calls without prior approval
• No contributions for a month without prior approval
• Repeated poor-quality PR submissions after warnings

9. Updates

This document was last updated on December 02, 2024.

10. Contact

If you have any questions or concerns, please write to the community manager Aravind Mahadevan (aravind@pupilfirst.org).