First off, I'm posting this under the general nursing discussion because I need advice from nurses, preferably ones familiar with the hiring process--not other students. If it's considered incorrect, feel free to move it.
I reached out to a professor to see about internships. What I got in return was far more than I expected--she wants me not only to assist her with teaching a nursing skills class (I'm in a BSN program in the Midwest, for reference), but she wants me to be the leader of a group of other student mentors. This is an unpaid position and I will be teaching about 8 hours a week in addition to my full time classes--not including grading or prepping for class. She also wants me to put together a panel discussion of top nursing students from my school and she wants me to be the host.
My tears are (mostly) not ones of joy; I am a 22-year-old single mom to a 3-year-old little boy and I'm just so afraid of spending time away from him. I feel scared and overwhelmed. My question:
Will this help me get a better job? I want to work in public health or clinics. Possibly long-term care.
My first priority is my son. Period. More than experience or pay, I want good hours. Don't lecture me on that.
I'm incredibly honored by my professor's decision to put me in charge of other people when it's only going to be my third semester in the five-semester program. She basically made it sound like she thinks I'm meant--MADE--to teach other people. Maybe she's right? Maybe this is a door that is supposed to be opening right now...? I don't know, but I want other people's opinions on whether this is something I should invest so much time in based on my goal to find a day job, be it a clinic, school, or otherwise.
When I was in nursing school, I was the president of our college's nursing club, which probably added a good four or more hours a week to my schedule, plus events. It was a total pain, unpaid, but I knew that what I was doing was benefiting others. (We raised over $4K for local health related charity organizations). I have three kids and a husband who is constantly away on business travel. It was a pain to do this and be in a very difficult nursing program, but I did it. And when I graduated, I slapped that right on my resume, and I know that it was something my potential employers looked at when they read it. I would have gotten my current job without it (LTC), but the new job I am applying for, yes, it will totally be a factor in their decision that I volunteered to take on that kind of responsibility.
Whether or not it was defined as an unpaid internship, it's a possible "cookie" in your resume that you may/may not care about enough to do. It sounds like a lot of work to me, and in your situation, I might not choose to do it. (Three year olds are time consuming!)
The power to refuse is all yours ! Make good use of it, and you will be a happier person. Especially for a lot of women, the ability to say no and set boundaries is an important skill.
She indicated she asked about internships, which then she was offered this. Stop playing semantics here. This more than qualifies as an internship.
it isn't semantics in the least! Asking about internships means the OP expected to find an internship as a student nurse, and there are those available, nursing internships in which a student is working on a hospital unit, under the guidance of one or more nurses, with a nurse educator, and learning more in-depth about the career they are taking on. Learning more skills and gaining knowledge as a practicing nurse. Thatis what kind of internship a student in a nursing program expects and should expect. I have had many of these come through where I work now and other places I've worked, students who are not being paid to be on the unit but are there to learn AND in the process also help us out as much as they can.
This student was told she could grade papers,mentor other students, teach other students skills and so on, none of which any student nurse intern should expect to have to do or be doing.
other professions have school requirements that include unpaid internship hours and those students, including your friend, worked in their field to gain knowledge and see what a professional with her degree would be doing. The OP would not be benefitting from any of that, and would have not spent a single hour working alongside a practicing nurse doing a single thing an actual nurse does. She'd be used to teach other students what she already knows in a lab setting. She's a graduate student on an academic path? Fine. Wants to be a working nurse? Not fine.
She indicated she asked about internships, which then she was offered this. Stop playing semantics here. This more than qualifies as an internship.
Semantics? She reached out for an internship and was offered a flat out exploitation in a specialty she wasn't even looking at. That is the difference between this scenario and an actual internship. OP stated she wants to work in pubic health, not education. Your MSW friend did an internship in something that actually related to social work, correct? She didn't intern at a corporate bank or a something irrelevant to her goal.
And furthermore, if everybody looking for an internship simply had to ask to get it, well, that changes the whole playing field, doesn't it? That does not qualify as an internship by any standards. Did your friend reach out to get her internship and was given it, or did she apply to one and had to fight off a field of other applicants...like every legitimate internship process? You are trying to make this definition of an internship fit...just like the faculty member who is trying to exploit OP.
I don't think it will help, unless you're looking into education in the long run.
In my last two semesters in nursing schools, I took part in two student internships with hospitals. They paid well for me "observing" and practicing skills. They also only required 2-4 days per month, so it really helped me get a feel of the floors I wanted to work for and not work for.. but also a foot in the door with the hospital! I had contacts when I graduated and worked with that.
MSWs along with MFTs need an internship in order to graduate with their masters degree. Those students have no other choice but to work for free. One way to equalize an internship in nursing that is on the same level as MSWs is clinical in the hospital. Here students gain the experience needed, and it is experience needed to graduate. The internship being offered here of teaching, is just something to put on a resume. It is an option, and not a requirement for degree completion.
When I was a student, I would have questioned my ability to TEACH, in the manner that your instructor seems to be expecting of you. It sounds like the benefits are mainly for her, not you and the drawbacks affect you. I wouldn't shed anymore tears and just tell her thanks but no thanks
Wow, that sounds like a great honor. I have never heard of a nursing student being asked to take such an active role in teaching their fellow classmates. You must be an awesome nursing student if you have a professor that would even consider you for that; I wish my skills had been up to the level needed to receive such an offer.
When I first read what your teacher had asked you to do, my initial thought was wondering how someone could turn down such an offer. My thoughts changed as I read your whole story as well as others responses to it. For one, it does seem like a lot of hours to expect out of someone that is still a student themselves and who is also a mother. The fact that you are not being paid monetarily isn't such a big issue, but it sounds like you are not getting compensated anyway, such as credits for class or a better chance of getting a job. I would certainly hope that, at the very least, she would be giving you a good reference after you're done with school. Others may be right, she may be trying to take advantage of a strong nursing student who may not have the confidence to ask for some form of compensation.
Also, it sounds like this type of position doesn't really align with your future goals, nor your current life situation. You're a single parent who is putting her son first, so you really don't have all the extra hours this would demand. You also say that you want to work in public health, clinics or long term care, and this "position" would be more relevant if you were seeking to become an educator.
However, since being asked this...have you considered going into teaching? Do you see yourself at all possibly educating others? If so, this may be a good way to see if you like teaching. After all, teaching jobs are typically daytime as well. However, the experience needed to obtain these jobs usually requires working odd hospital hours, at least initially.
kummerspeck
122 Posts
When I was in nursing school, I was the president of our college's nursing club, which probably added a good four or more hours a week to my schedule, plus events. It was a total pain, unpaid, but I knew that what I was doing was benefiting others. (We raised over $4K for local health related charity organizations). I have three kids and a husband who is constantly away on business travel. It was a pain to do this and be in a very difficult nursing program, but I did it. And when I graduated, I slapped that right on my resume, and I know that it was something my potential employers looked at when they read it. I would have gotten my current job without it (LTC), but the new job I am applying for, yes, it will totally be a factor in their decision that I volunteered to take on that kind of responsibility.
Whether or not it was defined as an unpaid internship, it's a possible "cookie" in your resume that you may/may not care about enough to do. It sounds like a lot of work to me, and in your situation, I might not choose to do it. (Three year olds are time consuming!)
Good luck in that and school!