Any tips on how to get the most of a summer externship?

BloopBloop · Jun 12, 2012

In short, I'm about to enter my last 2 semesters of NS and I've been unbelievably lucky to land a PAID internship for two consecutive summers at a reputable hospital in Brooklyn through a scholarship. This was my first week working 12-hour shifts and shadowing my preceptor, and it's been exciting. I've been told that being an intern at a hospital is likely to give me a leg up on the competition when the time comes to apply for jobs. However, to stay in good graces with my scholarship, I have to maintain a 3.0 GPA, right now i'm at 2.9 and am taking a nutrition class this summer as well as an extra philosophy with my Nursing courses in the fall to bump it back up.

In accordance with life, its uncertain whether or not my GPA will come back above the 3.0 to return for next summer, so I want to make the most of this internship. Between shadowing and noting techniques and procedures, keeping a smile on my face and helping where I'm allowed, what are some strategies as an intern that I can utilize to my advantage that may help me be remembered? I do not ask clinical questions that can be answered by doing some digging in my nursing book, so that said, I do ask questions.

Surprisingly I made some sort of impact with the nurses at the nearby Cath lab (I work at the Cardiac special care unit) during my school clinicals, because they remembered my as the student who sat and talked with a patient through his anxiety while waiting for the procedure. But they didnt remember my name =/

Background: Our program coordinator is a first-timer and doesnt have a degree in the medical field, so maybe I can get tips from you guys. Others in the program's GPA have dropped the same amount as mine, but because I was a transfer student who only took a couple classes before acceptance into the program, the number of credits indexed into my GPA is smaller and therefore takes a harder hit.