Unpaid Internship

Nurses General Nursing

Published

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?

Specializes in Medical Surgical Orthopedic.

A lot of people are very against it.

https://allnurses.com/graduate-nurse-forum/sutter-health-new-400715.html

Specializes in ED/ICU/TELEMETRY/LTC.

If you work for nothing, you're nuts.

Specializes in Psych, Corrections, Med-Surg, Ambulatory.

Is this happening somewhere? Not in a union shop, I hope! This could also be a violation of state labour laws.

Dear Tricia and Dixie Redhead, in case you didn't read the part where I clearly noted that this would be the individuals' personal choice in order to gain entrance and start their career. What difference does it make if you are unemployed versus if you are completing unpaid internship that may most likely land you into a paid position.

Specializes in ED/ICU/TELEMETRY/LTC.

Difference: Gas, oil, tires, clothes, shoes, laundry, child care?,

Specializes in PICU, ICU, Hospice, Mgmt, DON.

NO way would I ever work without compensation (unless I was volunteering)...I don't care what the facility calls this.."internship" or what...they are still getting free labor and I think anyone who does this should have their heads examined...but, I know the job market is really lousey now, and that's why these unscrupled leeches can get away with this....I know the arguement is that the nurses (slave labor) who do this may then get a paid position...BUT I would not want to work for a facility who condoned this typed of abhorrant behavior!

Aside from potential legal issues with various labor laws designed explicitly to stop exploitation of workers like this I can see lots of problems with this approach. From personal experience in the software business, feel free to add any number of licensing and malpractice issues:

If it costs too much to hire someone it certainly costs too much to train anyone.

if something goes wrong you're a freebie to throw under the bus

they will simply not hire you and in 6 months bring in another free intern

It won't count as experience for HR, you are a volunteer who never worked there

If you want access and connections Volunteer is the word I hear from reading the student forums here, but don't expect it to be interacting with patients in a clinical way.

Maybe an open ended question on alternative methods of getting noticed and/or creating job opportunities would lead to some answers better than enslaving yourself to a position that doesn't exist at a company that can't afford you?

Been there, done that with clinicals.

Specializes in Leadership, Psych, HomeCare, Amb. Care.
is it legal for a fairly new graduate nurse with personal professional insurance request to complete an unpaid internship from hospitals/health care facilities?

Lots of people in other fields have done unpaid internships in order to gain experience & increase employability.

If they are actually training you, and you are working with a nurse, not functioning as a nurse, it's probably legal.

Can you speak to someone who has actually gone through the internship & been offered employment there?

If you have no other current prospects, you could always start the program while conducting a job search. Even having the internship in progress listed on your resume will put you ahead of the zero experience new grad.

Specializes in Med/Surg, Academics.
Lots of people in other fields have done unpaid internships in order to gain experience & increase employability.

I'd like to add that in other corporate-type fields, paid internships are nearly unheard of. Getting one of the few paid internships is usually ridiculously competitive.

If it's expensive for hospitals to train new grad nurses, it will be expensive for them to train new grad "unpaid interns."

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