Unpaid Internship

[Decemberblues]

is it legal for a fairly new graduate nurse with personal professional insurance request to complete an unpaid internship from hospitals/health care facilities? I know this sound ridiculous, but if new graduate nurses are willing to go through a 3-6 months internship unpaid, chances are the facility will hire them on after and if they don't they have 3-6 months or so of training that will make then better candidates when applying elsewhere. Clearly all the proper documents must be signed to protect the hospital from any liability related to unpaid employees. It just seems like This option will save the hospital some money (as most hospital say that the reason they don't hire new graduates is because it cost too much money to train them)...if part of that cost (paying the interns) is cut, shouldn't it be more likely that they can hire new grads? There must be some legal clause? otherwise many hospital will offer the option? Anyway have experience or know of an explanation to this?

[joanna73, BSN, RN]

While you might see working for free as a good idea, most people wouldn't agree. That's setting a dangerous precedent. There was a thread a while back about a hospital paying new grads 11 dollars an hour, which many of us thought was crazy.

This type of thing only gives hospitals the opportunity to keep low balling employees. As a new grad a year ago, I started at 33 an hour, which I was extremely grateful for. Working as a nurse for any less than say 26 an hour...no way.

[TriciaJ, RN]

I know it might seem like a good idea in this tight job market to get a foot in the door, legalities aside. But after you've been a nurse for a while, you'll experience all the clever insidious ways hospitals find to exploit you. They have a million tricks to get free work out of nurses. Don't open the door for that any wider. You'll be selling yourself (and the rest of us) short.

Your skills are worth money and you deserve to be paid. Even as a beginner. Hang in there and good luck.

[honeykrown, MSN, NP]

I see people saying some professions had unpaid internship...mind you we did too it's called clinicals. I didnt get paid all through my clinicals adn i got pt loads like the other nurses (some places the nurse would not help).

If you offer your services for free whats not to say at the end of the internship you get fired and they bring in another free labor.

[joanna73, BSN, RN]

Exactly. In my 4 year BSN, I had 4 years of clinical. The last year was full time. I refuse work for free anymore. Not that that's an issue....I have a job. But the point is, we did the unpaid internship already.

[mazy]

What kind of job responsibilities would an intern have? Some sort of certification or licensing is required for people working in direct patient care; more importantly, that person, being a new grad, would need to be supervised by someone depending on their responsibilities.

In clinicals a clinical instructor is supervising, and has the weight of the school behind them; a new hire in training has a preceptor who has the training facility to back them up.

Who would be supervising an unpaid intern? What would they be doing? I think having an untrained volunteer on the floor would be very problematic for nursing staff.

Most unpaid internships in the corporate world involve interns getting coffee and helping out with papework and the scut work, I don't see how something like that would be helpful for someone looking to get a foot in the door as a nurse. Especially since facilites can rely on volunteers -- not necessarily trained in health care -- to do things like fetch extra blankets and supplies and converse with patients.

I just have an image in my head of some well-meaning new grad running around aimlessly trying to be helpful and jut getting in everyone's way.

[diva rn, BSN, RN]

..and again, if not hired by this (very unscrupulous facility) I highly doubt this would count as experience in any other hospital in the USA...or anywhere for that matter.

[maiday]

I'm in CA and the job market for new grads is very tough. One particular hospital offered an unpaid "nurse extern" position for students. It was basically like a preceptorship except you worked for the hospital, not the school. The current hospital I work at offers this also, except it's paid (at a little more than a CNA rate). The point as the OP stated was to get your foot in the door and gain some experience to be more marketable. I had a few classmates who did this. They worked 1 or 2 12 hour shifts every week unpaid.

They gained experience but at the end when they graduated... not 1 person was hired. It seemed like a good idea but in the end, if they couldn't afford to pay interns, they probably couldn't afford to hire new grads.

My opinion, I used to think this was a good idea (like the OP) for new grads but I am now more of the opinion that it is setting a bad precedent for nursing. Now that I'm working I realize we do WAY to much to not get paid!