nurse extern in ICU

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hey guys. so right now i have been out of hs for 2 years i did all my pre reqs for my BSN and i will now start and a 4 year university this fall and complete my last 3 years of actual nursing classes (it would have been 2 years but this school does and extra year of clinical work and thats when i needed to start) my dream has always been to be trauma ceritified and ICU certified and eventually i would LOVE to become a NP( i know its a lot and maybe not resonable but i would love to do that) the hospital i work at now has extern jobs but they want you to be a junior in college to do that which i will be in a year. WHat do you think about being a nurse extern? and what can i do now to help my chances of getting more critical care experience so i can possiably get into the ICU or trauma later on?

I work in the hospital now and LOVE the ICU and Trauma units and i know thats exactly where i want to be no doubt about it so any help would be great because i would enjoy working in an area like that now so any ideas would be great.

ALso i know pretty much what an extern does but would you guys be able to tell me exactly how it works like what you let your externs do and your thoughts on externs

Thanks everyone

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Specializes in med/surg, ER.

An extern's scope of practice depends on the school and the hospital...possibly the state, too. As far as being an extern goes...you cannot buy the experience you get as an extern. If you have the opportunity, DO IT even if it means going to a unit that is not your first choice. Every minute of experience you get builds your practice!

Good luck!

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So far sounds like you are doing all the right things...Working in the hospital NOW is key. Those new grads that I knew who got the hospital jobs they wanted after school...were mostly the ones that had hospital jobs during school!!

When I interviewed as a new grad and inquired about what types of experience would help me I was told that new grad nurses with EMT experience would be given high consideration. You can take that class cheap and easily...and volunteer a few days here and there when you can.

Externship...I highly recommend it. Mine was before my senior year and I came out of that experience with a whole different set of "eyes" and much more realistic perspective. Mine was 160 hours per month for 2 months which is more then a typical semester of clinical and as a result, my senior year was a breeze..my grades went up too. I got a 3.75 for the last semester which was complex med-surg/ICU type experience and preceptorship.

I also got alot more experience with procedures from floating around the unit then I ever got in clinicals with those 1 or two patients. We spent some days as a PCA, shadowed a nurse other days, and went to all the specialty units..some we got to pick...so if you like ICU you could do extra days there instead of a peds unit and ect.

I believe I dropped my one and only NGT, which I did not do in 4 years of nursing school. heh. The unit pretty much knew when an extern was on the floor so they would save any procedure for you...and you were no longer competing against 12 other students for a chance at the one and only procedure of a typical clinical day. I know that at the time of graduation that I had done alot more then my fellow classmates. It was after this externship experience that I really started to feel like "ok, I am ready to be a nurse"...

Certain skills we had to be checked off on such as catheters and demonstrate them 3 times with a nurse before being allowed to just go and do them. But we were allowed to do quite a bit..caths, ngts, remove iv's, blood glucose sticks, emptying drains, wound care with supervision, ekg's, collecting specimens for culture, and one point I did a gastric lavage, lol. There is more i am sure but that is all i can think of atm.

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I am currently finishing up my externship. I learned so much more during the externship than my 2 clinical rotations at school. I followed my preceptor's schedule and was putting in 36 hours per week for 8 weeks compared to around 50 hours for the whole semester at my school. You will learn the mechanics of whatever floor you are in and you become more comfortable in your role as nursing student. You will definitely learn the intangibles they don't teach at nursing school.

The externship showed me REAL Med-Surg nursing. Our clinical rotations assigns us 1 or 2 patients. I know we are students and that's what they think is ideal for us at this stage of our studies but how does it prepare us when we get a job and are taking care of 7 patients?

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I love being an extern! It has taught me time management skills, I've had the opportunity to watch fabulous nurses being fabulous nurses, I've picked up on tips and tricks watching those wonderful nurses and I've even learned a few things about what not to do. I've had the opportunity to place foley caths, IV's, NG's, etc. I've had the ability to put my hands on the equipment, which is not always something you are exposed to in clinicals. And, I've had the opportunity to make contacts outside of school. In fact, one of the RNs told me that she is going to recommend me to my choice of unit after graduation! Invaluable!!!

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Specializes in ICU, Telemetry.

Externship is a wonderful way to see what nursing's really like. It's good if you can get one like those at our hospital, where you spend 2 weeks in each area of the hospital -- OR, ICU, M/S, PACU, Ambulatory, ER. Good luck, and see you out in the world!

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it sounds like everyone has positive things to say about externships and im really excited and hopefully in a year i will be able to get into nurse extern program at my hospital. It seems like GREAT experience and like someone said your alone with your nurse not with a bunch of other students "fighting" to do certian things that everyone wants the chance to do. i am going to go for it once i am able after this year and hopefully ill get the ICU one and see what it is really like in there and if i dont get it in the icu thats fine too i would be happy with any unit though and would be thrilled to get the experience.

thanks everyone for your input and good luck to all of you that are still in school!

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