How do I find a shadowing Opportunity?

[Olivia Smith]

I am a pre-nursing student and I have no experience in the nursing field. Shadowing an RN would give me an excellent opportunity to see what it's like, and if I want to continue to study nursing. How do I go about finding a shadow opportunity?

[kbrn2002, ADN, RN]

Typically job shadows for students are arranged by the program, not the individual student. Ask your academic advisor for help scheduling a shadow before you attempt this on your own but don't be too surprised if it's difficult to impossible if a job shadow is not in your curriculum. Ask your academic advisor if/when a scheduled job shadow is in the curriculum. Some programs do this.  Mine offered  a job shadow day during my first semester once I was accepted in the nursing program but that was a long time ago so I honestly don't know if that's still a thing.

Most if not all hospital systems stopped allowing anybody other than staff on the floor during COVID and many have not resumed allowing this outside of scheduled students and prospective new hires. 

If your academic advisor can't help you schedule a job shadow you might have better luck doing this on your own if you know somebody who either has the ability to approve it or who knows somebody who does and is willing to ask for you.  If nothing else trying to get this arranged will be an excellent opportunity to practice some networking skills.