I am about to start my nursing schooling in about a year, and I was wondering if I should get an internship at the hospital just doing anything, so that I have more experience in hospital settings. Can somebody please tell me what they did before and during their schooling, that allowed them to advance into the NICU after graduation?

I am about to start my nursing schooling in about a year, and I was wondering if I should get an internship at the hospital just doing anything, so that I have more experience in hospital settings. Can somebody please tell me what they did before and during their schooling, that allowed them to advance into the NICU after graduation?

I didn't work any before school but had classmates who were CNA's and it seemed to help them some. It probably would have helped me as the first clincial I went to I was terrified! I kept asking myself what did I get into and all my friends were having a great time. After I got into school and took fundamentals of nursing i then got a job as a PCT and it helped a lot with my confidence in dealing with patients so I guess that depends on you. It did one thing for sure which was make me realize I did NOT want to do adult nursing.

So then I was a tech in the NICU around my school. They didn't have many techs, not all NICU's do, but I was fortunate to be able to do it. My job basically was to help feed the babies, after I got to a certain point in school I could draw heelstick labs, if the transport team was being called out I would get the transport isolette....sometimes I was the unit secretary etc etc etc. It helped to network and get to know some great nurses but I don't think it was essential for me to do in order to get a job in the NICU. The staffing was terrible at the time at my home hospital and no kidding my interview literally went like this:

Hi, let me tell you about the unit......

So when do you want to start............

Insert my answer here...........

ok we'll see you................................

This unit was NOT new grad friendly though, so in hindsight I would have asked questions and kept my options open to what the best NICU enviornment would be. I heard other of my classmates being turned down for NICU and I was so excited to get a position that it's all I cared about. I did learn a lot, but in a hostile enviornment. So good luck with school, keep your options open and have fun!

I am about to start my nursing schooling in about a year, and I was wondering if I should get an internship at the hospital just doing anything, so that I have more experience in hospital settings. Can somebody please tell me what they did before and during their schooling, that allowed them to advance into the NICU after graduation?