Student Nurse Externships

[ruralnurs]

My facility is considering creating a nurse externship for the summer for student nurses. Have you ever done one or applied for one? What went well and what would you like to see (as a student)? What would you have changed if possible?

As a nurse and a part-time nursing instructor it seems that my students all want more skills and feel they never get enough practice with IVs, foleys, NGs etc.

What kind of wages did you get? I don't need exact amounts but was it close to a CNA, more or less, were you 36-40 hours per week, how long was the program, did you continue to work there, what were you allowed to do, were there any things you could not do like give narcotics, did you have one specific RN mentor you or were you with several nurses, what shift did you do, etc.?

Thanks!

[achapman]

I am a student nurse tech at a large hospital in ct. We are no allowed to give ANY meds. We get about $2 more than CNAs make. The only extra skills we can do besides CNA stuff are d/c foleys, straight cath, suctioning trachs, and d/c medlocks. Oh and I work 24hrs/week.

[TRINI_RN]

I did a student nurse externship last year on a cardiac stepdown floor. I loved it!

I was assigned a single preceptor and worked her assigned shift full time (3 12's) for 6 weeks (the program also had a 10 week option). Under my preceptor I could perform any skills that I had done in clinical including (but not limited to):

PO meds

IVP

IVPB

IM INJ

Sub Q INJ

NG tube insertion

dressing chages

IV starts

lab draws

Foley insertion/removal

Trach care

All of my meds were checked off by my preceptor first, and she was in the room when I did IVP meds, and I was allowed to give narcs. The only thing that was different that clinicals was that I did not have pyxis access, so she pulled my meds for me. I also got to do some things that I hadn't done in clinical like pt discharge and charting assessments (with the co-sign of my preceptor).

I was paid $11/hr which is a few $$ more than the CNA/care partners. The only thing that I would have changed is the fact that my precptor was the charge nurse. She was an excellent resource, but she had alot of responsibility and administrative duties.

All in all it was a wonderful experience and I stayed on the floor after the program as a nurse tech. The only difference in my duties now is that I can't pass meds.

[llg, PhD, RN]

I coordinate the extern program at my hospital. We pair the externs with a preceptor and allow them to do virtually everything an RN does as long as the RN preceptor is physically present and directly supervising the student at close range.

We also emphasize helping the externs develop realistic career plans for themselves and preparing them to transition for student to staff nurse after graduation. We urge them to use their senior years to work on those things they identify as learning needs during their summer with us.

As we publicize our program on our website, we get applicants from all over the country and can be very selective. We accept less than half of the students who apply for our program.

[mysterious_one, ASN, RN]

I work an externship where I get to do skills like IV's , Foley, Blood draws, dressing changes. We are not allowed to give meds. We do work as techs/pct, but we all should be able to do our skills and on specialty floors you also learn the ins and outs of that unit. I am personally on L&D and I am learning how to scrub in and assist during C-sections, etc. The purpose of the extern ship of this hospital is, to not only help in giving you more practice for your skills, but to ease the transition into a possible internship position on that unit, if you later chose to do so. Most extern positions start in the summer or winter break and are considered as PRN, the pay is 15,- plus shift diff. Most stay on until graduation. We were all checked of on our skills by nurse educators at the hospital.

[llg, PhD, RN]

I forgot to add to my earlier post:

We pay our externs at the same rate as our per diem nursing assistants. We didn't want there to be any hard feelings between the 2 groups and we didn't want our nursing assistants who are also nursing students to flock to the extern role. We wanted to maintain 2 clear choices for students to choose from:

1. A part-time nursing assistant role that was year-round

2. A summer extern program that was for 3 months only

Each role is attractive, but suits students with different needs. The extern role is perfect for students who don't go to school in our area and who are just looking for a great summer job that will help their careers. The part-time or per diem nursing assistant role is great for people who attend school locally who want the year-round income. We try to treat both groups well and provide learning opportunities for both groups -- though the focus and scheduling options are different for each.

For externs who decide they would like to stay on as nursing assistants during their senior year of school, we have worked out a way for them to do that. The number of people who do that is small as most of those folks are steered into the nursing assistant role to begin with.