My school does not offer externships

[sooperdooper]

I start the my nursing program in Jan '09 and just found out that my school does not offer any type of externship. How do I get one now? Has anyone ever been in this boat before?

[groovy jeff, RN]

Have you tried looking at other hospitals? At my NS, students are totally in charge of finding or getting an externship. Some hospitals open them up to any school, some only open them up to the school they are affiliated with.

I wanted to extern at our regional burn center; but no matter where I looked (websites, etc.) there was no mention of any extern opportunities. So I put together a package, which included cover letter, current transcript, synopsis of my medical experience, my resume' from my past life, and 2 letters of recommendation from clinical instructors, and I sent that to the charge nurse of the unit (always send stuff like that via priority mail-it cost about $5 but it always gets opened). The charge nurse called me up and explained their program and told me when to apply.

My point is, that sometimes you have to make your own opportunities happen.