Looking for a nurse to interview!

[futurenurse_2014]

Hi everyone. I'm a senior nursing student currently taking a class in community health. My assignment is to interview a nurse who works (or has worked within the last 10 years) within the community, either in public health, home care, hospice, or parish nursing. So far I haven't been able to find anybody, but now that the project is due by this Friday, I thought I'd try here. If you are a community nurse and you could help me out by answering some questions, I'd appreciate it so much! Let me know.

Thanks!

[Esme12, ASN, BSN, RN]

Have you tried your local health department? or CVS type minute clinic? elder services or B/P check events?

[nurseprnRN, BSN, RN]

Call your nearest public health department or VNA. They are full of nurses. I can't believe you tried very hard if you didn't persist in this. Get on it.

We get these requests a lot, so if there are any other students out there who might get this kind of assignment, listen up:

Part of your faculty's reason for giving you this assignment is to get you to go out there and speak to an RN face to face. A big email blast is not a substitute for shoe leather. AN is not Google.

See, in nursing, you have to learn to speak to a lot of people you would not otherwise encounter; you might find yourself out of your comfort zone. This is part of nursing, a huge part. An anonymous respondent online, well, you don't really know who we are, do you? We could be the truck driving guy living next door for all you know.

So if all you do about learning new things is "Go to the keyboard and hit send," then you are limiting your chances of actual learning a valuable skill you will need all your working life. Also, your faculty will not be impressed by your citation of an anonymous nurse on the internet.

That said: Where will you find a nurse? Think outside the (computer) box.

Local hospital: go to the staff development/inservice education office and ask one of them. They value education and will be happy to chat or to hook you up with someone who is.

Go to the public health department downtown. Ditto.

Go to the local school and ask to speak to a school nurse. Ditto.

Go to a local clinic / physician/NP office. Ditto.

Go to the local jail and ask to speak to the nurse there. Ditto.

Notice all of these say, "Go to..." and not "Email..." Remember that part about meeting new people face to face and comfort zone.

Go!