Anyone working as a student nurse???

skyyhiflygirl · Oct 29, 2005

At one of the hospitals here where I do clinical rotations, I just landed a job as a student nurse assistant in the resource pool. The resource pool is ENTIRELY made up of nursing students and was designed by a former clinical instructor. We get to self-schedule and basically we can do anything we have been signed off in clinical for EXCEPT medications. We will also get to shadow nurses in all the different areas of the hospital and learn a BUNCH of different aspects of working in the hospital besides just the standard bedside nursing. I cannot wait to get started and I will keep you all informed.

By the way, I am in the La Quinta/Palm Desert area of California.

For those struggling to get hospital positions, USE YOUR CLINICAL INSTRUCTORS to help you get inside the hospitals and pull strings. That's what I did to get my position.

MIA-RN1, RN · Oct 29, 2005

I am confused a bit here. I was working as an ER tech and was allowed as part of my job to do caths and apply topical abx before I bandages someone after they got their sutures from the doc.

Then I went to school and learned about scope of practice. My understanding is that non-licensed personnel can NOT perform sterile procedures or do anything involving giving meds. I talked to my state BON (NY) and this was confirmed and was one of the main reasons I left the job.

The only exception to this rule is while in clinicals for school with the instructor present.

I also talked to classmate who IS doing med passes etc in her nurse extern job. I happened to interview at the same hospital and talked to the Nurse Recruiter about it, expressing my interest in the job and asking how they are able to allow unlicensed people to pass meds. She said they are absolutelyl NOT allowed to pass meds since they don't have licenses. She said its out of the scope of practice to do so without a license. I am going to check back with my classmate and be sure I understood her correctly.

How is it that working as a student nurse outside of the classroom-clnical setting one can pass meds, give shots etc? Is it just in NYS that its out of scope?

lunakat · Oct 29, 2005

Lunakat -- I live about 10 miles from Los Angeles. I know some hospitals have jobs posted on their employment webpage, but not too many. I don't want to float, or end up doing mostly paperwork or something like that -- I may not be able to do procedures, but it would be ideal if I got to observe something now and then... I was thinking maybe in an ER or maybe surgery.

Yeesh, you are way south of me. I am in the central valley; sorry I can't be of much help with LA hospitals. You could try asking in the state section of the forums. Surgery would be cool; I have observed a couple of them in clinical. While we were there they were recruiting us heavily. OR nurses are in very big demand in my area. In fact on of the guys in my class is working in the OR right now as a student nurse. ER is cool, it's like getting everything in one place (psych, OB, med-surg, peds, ect.) Try contacting the Local hospitals recruitment office. That's what I did. It took them almost a month to call me back and hire me but at least I was persistent... Good Luck!

lunakat · Oct 29, 2005

I am confused a bit here. I was working as an ER tech and was allowed as part of my job to do caths and apply topical abx before I bandages someone after they got their sutures from the doc.
Then I went to school and learned about scope of practice. My understanding is that non-licensed personnel can NOT perform sterile procedures or do anything involving giving meds. I talked to my state BON (NY) and this was confirmed and was one of the main reasons I left the job.
The only exception to this rule is while in clinicals for school with the instructor present.
I also talked to classmate who IS doing med passes etc in her nurse extern job. I happened to interview at the same hospital and talked to the Nurse Recruiter about it, expressing my interest in the job and asking how they are able to allow unlicensed people to pass meds. She said they are absolutelyl NOT allowed to pass meds since they don't have licenses. She said its out of the scope of practice to do so without a license. I am going to check back with my classmate and be sure I understood her correctly.
How is it that working as a student nurse outside of the classroom-clnical setting one can pass meds, give shots etc? Is it just in NYS that its out of scope?

Most of the people in my area are in work experience (hey, college credit while you get paid to work is great!), so there for I believe we are still working under the school, like clinical but without an instructor. As for the others who are not, many hospitals will not allow you to do that stuff. Some nurses will though but if anything goes wrong its under their license. This is my understanding of it, I could be wrong though....

Momto3andNurse2B · Oct 29, 2005

How do you find externships? Do you just go through the hospital's HR department? I have part of the summer off, and I'd love to be able to do something like that, maybe even through my last two semesters.

lunakat · Oct 29, 2005

How do you find externships? Do you just go through the hospital's HR department? I have part of the summer off, and I'd love to be able to do something like that, maybe even through my last two semesters.

I went through recruitment in the HR dept of my local hospital. I knew they offered positions because on our last day of clinical there, they bought us lunch and gave us info about it. Or try asking the Nursing office which hospitals offer extern positions. Some hospitals will post the extern positions on their employment section of their website....

peds4now, RN · May 26, 2006

I'm in Los Angeles, and it is starting to look like ALL the hospitals have positions for students. A good first step is apply online if that is an option. Get your resume in their system even if you can't find an appropriate job title. Then just call the nurse recruiting office and ask them what jobs they have for a student nurse and tell them "I'm in your system." That way they can look you up right then, see your resume, and schedule the interview. A lot of the student nurse positions are not actually listed in the job databases/listings. Pay rates really vary though. Also, if you just want to be in a hospital, you can usually get a CNA job without certification as a student. In fact, I know someone working at UCLA as a CNA and she's making better money than the student nurse externships! If money is an issue, that is worth keeping in mind.

As far as what a student can do, I'm told many hospitals will let you do all kinds of stuff, even pass meds, if you are willing. Time to take responsibility for whether you are within your scope of practice!

Sheri257 · May 26, 2006

As far as what a student can do, I'm told many hospitals will let you do all kinds of stuff, even pass meds, if you are willing.

How is it that working as a student nurse outside of the classroom-clnical setting one can pass meds, give shots etc? Is it just in NYS that its out of scope?

I believe we are still working under the school, like clinical but without an instructor. As for the others who are not, many hospitals will not allow you to do that stuff. Some nurses will though but if anything goes wrong its under their license. This is my understanding of it, I could be wrong though....

There seems to be a lot of confusion here. You've got to be very, very careful when it comes to doing RN duties as a student extern.

I'm also in California, and you can't just get a hospital job and start doing RN duties, regardless of whether the hospital or the RN's say you can. That is big, big trouble. This is not up to the hospitals or the RN's, this is regulated by the Board of Nursing.

In California, you can only legally do RN skills if you're participating in a BON approved extern program at your school where the hospital's participation has also been board approved.

The school has to get board approval for each hospital that participates in the extern program ... so you have to find out which hospitals are approved for your school's extern program and apply to those facilities. If your school doesn't have an extern program and/or you're working for a hospital that's not approved for externships at your school ... and you're doing RN duties ... that is illegal.

When working for an approved hospital, you can only do those skills that you have been checked off in school, and documentation of those checkoffs has to be on file both with the school and the hospital.

But ... you also have to make sure you're registered with the school's cooperative education program while you're working as an extern at the hospital.

Very, very important: One California student failed to register for cooperative education while they worked as an extern, and they were banned from taking the NCLEX after the BON audited the program.

You really need to make sure that everything you're doing as an extern complies with BON regulations. Check with the school and the BON to make sure you're in compliance.

:typing

PAmom · May 28, 2006

I could not find any suitable externship either. Probably I left it for too long - sent e-mails in a hope someone would contact me and they did not...Should have called earlier...Not easy to fing phone numbers, though. And when you call, you only get answering machine, and they did not call you back...Anyway, I wanted L&D or NICU/pediatrics and could not find any. Others probably were not choosing me beacuse I put it in my resume as an objective (pediatric/L&D). Got one interview, they wanted full time Sat/Sun included, and not 3-12, but 5-8! Too much for the summer - what would I do with my own kids? They did not make an offer anyway...That was it...Did not apply to nursing home - I know somebody has to do it, but I've done enough bed baths and enemas this year at my med-surg and cardiac, wanted to take a break at summer...Any advice? I would now take any externship if it is part-time, even med-surg...but not nursing home...