Become Nurse While Working With the Needy

CuriousMe · Aug 3, 2009

Hello all,
I am looking for a program (school, non-profit group or corps, etc) that places you in a rural or underprivileged / needy demographic setting, either over-seas or here in America, where one can volunteer in a medical clinic as an assistant while becoming a registered nurse. I currently hold my B.S. of Biology.
Do any such programs exist? The closest and most obvious thing is the Peace Corps, where I can work as a health care aid and use the tuition grant to pay for a BSN when I return. However, that would take well over 4 or 5 years before I can become licensed, and I wish to begin my nursing career sooner. I am 25 years old and am interested specifically in pediatric or emergency nursing.
I would love a chance to this dream program overseas, as well.
Any direction would be greatly appreciated!
Peter
"The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others."
-- Mahatma Gandhi
"Only a life lived in the service to others is worth living."
-- Albert Einstein

Are you looking to do your clinical training in an under-served area or are you looking for the volunteering you do in a clinic to be in exchange for tuition?

If it's the former, many programs have you do at least part of your clinical training in a public health setting (which could include a rural clinic), and any program set in a rural area, would have you do your clinicals in a rural hospital.

If it's the latter....I don't know of any programs that let you earn tuition through the kind of service you're speaking of....and overseas assignments are tricky as the program needs to be approved by a state board of nursing somewhere in the US for you to be able to sit for your RN licensing exam. The only one I've heard of that is close is a program in the Caribbean....can't remember which island....but I've read A LOT of negative reports from former students....and it's very expensive.

You might be better served by finding the best program you can afford, getting into it, graduating and then follow your passion about where you'd like to practice.

Best of luck!!

Peace,

CuriousMe

PeterFromCharleston · Aug 3, 2009

Thank you for the quick response. It really does not matter to me if the tuition is covered or not by the volunteer work. I just want the opportunity, and if I had to use personal savings and student loans to do it, it would be well worth the cost.

I had envisioned working in a clinic with the Red Cross, for example, during the days and taking classes around the clinic hours.

Peter

CuriousMe · Aug 3, 2009

Thank you for the quick response. It really does not matter to me if the tuition is covered or not by the volunteer work. I just want the opportunity, and if I had to use personal savings and student loans to do it, it would be well worth the cost.
I had envisioned working in a clinic with the Red Cross, for example, during the days and taking classes around the clinic hours.
Peter

While I of course can be wrong.....I don't think a program like that exists. Honestly, if it did....it could be lacking some clinical experiences. Nursing education is supposed to prepare you as a generalist....but that sounds like some pretty specific clinical experiences.

As I said above, we spend part of our clinical time in local sliding-scale clinics, the VA, school clinics, homeless shelters, etc....but the majority of our time is spent hospital based. We do have an organization on our campus called Nursing Students Without Borders which reaches out to an international community each summer and to the local community each year (with the idea that borders aren't just geographic).

If you participated in a traditional BSN program, you would usually have your summers off....you could obviously use your own time to volunteer where it makes sense to you and then do some kind of short-term trip with someone overseas during the summer?

I'd be really interested if you found a program like you described!!

elkpark · Aug 3, 2009

Welcome to allnurses! :balloons:

I have never heard of a program like you are looking for. Nursing school is at least the equivalent of a full-time job, so most people focus on getting through school and getting licensed, and then go "follow their bliss." Some schools do offer optional summer trips abroad to provide healthcare in underserved areas (I've attended and taught at schools that do that), but it's not part of the official school curriculum.

As CuriousMe noted, a large part of any pre-licensure nursing program is the clinical rotations, and those may often involve public health clinics, homeless shelter clinics, etc. Often, nursing schools offer a focus on their local milieu -- schools in urban areas offer extra emphasis on the special healthcare needs and issues related to poor, urban neighborhoods; schools in rural areas emphasize issues related to rural populations and settings. I live in Appalachia and the nursing program of the big state university near me has a strong emphasis/focus on working with rural Appalachian populations.

Best wishes for your journey!