How to get to the destination I hope for

[Kilika421]

Hello all nurses.com,

For as long as I can remember I have wanted to work in the mother/baby unit. This past semester I had my mother/baby clinical and it secured that idea in my mind that this is where I felt comfortable and could see myself working after nursing school. I am in a BSN program with an expected graduation date of May 2011. I live about 20-30 minutes from Chicago but go to school in Peoria. I have searched high and low for internships/externships around my hometown area while I would be home this summer and have applied to those few that I found. If nothing was listed on the hospital's web page/job section, I emailed the HR person to inquire about any opportunities. The simple fact is is that so many have responded with an email stating that they are having to make budget cuts because of the economy, therefore they are not offering an intership/externship for the Summer of 2010. I'm just nervous because I know that so many mother/baby units require at least a year's experience before even being considered. I was wondering if any of you have had the same dilemma. Were any of you interested in mother/baby but had to work someone else first? If so, what type of unit did you work on and do you feel that it helped toward making the mother/baby transition after a year or two easier or harder? I guess I'm just scared that since I've been so focused on wanting to work on mother/baby I have no direction of where to go if I can not find a job or get hired in that unit right out of nursing school. I thought an internship in that area might help but no internships have been found.

Thanks to anyone for their advice!

[IGiveTheShots]

Have you tried other cities? You may want to branch out to the east and west coasts (mostly east since california is so selective) as well as texas and arizona. There are many sublets to chose from in order to secure housing, and you are more likely to get an idea of what its like outside of illinois (along with having more chance of getting an internship)

Also, have you looked at Northwestern Hospitals? Prentice may have a program that would suit you.

[Kilika421]

Actually Northwestern was one of the first that I had looked at and applied for. My friend was able to at least set up a phone interview after submitting his application and he told me that the Northwestern interviewer mentioned that they had hundreds of applications to go through for not many spots.