Internship?

just got accepted for a summer internship. will this truly help enhance learned clinical skills or am i going to be a nursing assistant?

the answer depends both on the particular program and on your abilites to make the most of the opportunities that arise.

some programs emphasize the student's learning needs. some the performance of "nursing assisant tasks." most programs include some aspects of both, recognizing that those nursing assistant tasks can provide valuable learning experiences for the good student who knows how to learn from those experiences.

as with most of life's experiences, what you learn from them depends as much (if not more) on your attitude and your experiential learning skills than anything else. some people are very good at taking an "ordinary" experience and seeing all the lessons that can be learned from it. other people go through life not learning from their experiences. they seemed to need someone to guide them by the hand (or hit them over the head) in order to learn.

think of the internship as your chance to experience a real job in a hospital -- and your chance to gain experience not only with patient care skills, but also with practicing the skills of learning on the job where there may not always be a teacher there to guide you. set your own goals. make plans for how you will meet them. review them regularly. revise them as appropriate. make a special effort to establish relationships with people who can teach you things or give you good career advice and feedback on your performance.

in other words, take responsibility for your own learning. make sure that you learn valuable lessons even if your employer doesn't serve it up to you on a platter. that's how you succeed in the work world over the course of an entire career. start now.

good luck! let us know how it goes.

llg