How to find a shadowing opportunity?

[Emptymain]

I am interesting in become a nurse and would like to shadow a nurse to see what it is like before starting my pre reqs and applying to nursing school. How do I go about this? I don't know any nurses. I am in South Florida currently if that helps.

[Tacocat, ADN, RN]

Your best bet would be to maybe volunteer in a hospital?

[TKL]

Some hospitals have shadowing programs you can apply for, they tend to have a list of requirements before you are allowed in due to HIPAA and health & safety issues. 

Obtaining experience as a patient care tech/nurse assistant, etc. can be very beneficial for applying for internships and RN jobs in the future; they will give you great inpatient experience in different areas of the hospital; some hospitals have programs that will provide you with the education if you work for them. This will give you a larger understanding of the roles of nursing within a hospital system.

Lastly, and not the most reputable but finding Youtube videos, more reputable-podcasts about different individual's day in the life of nursing. Warning, some can be very biased or not always accurate in their subjective experience of nursing. Always interesting to look into.

Check your local hospitals and give HR a call. Good luck!

[ThursdayNight, CNA]

Volunteer in a hospital in your area or work as a CNA. 

[amoLucia]

Reading this late - but am suspecting that most, if not all, hosps will NOT consider accepting someone 'to shadow' esp since that person isn't even accepted in a nsg program (ie just someone just a curious 'looker').

And esp in these covid times and with HIPAA there is prob less willingness to provide 'shadowing' opp'ties. I would also be concerned if there could be any mandatory vaccination/masking requirements. Privacy & liability.