Is a nurse externship considered Registered Nursing experience...

Nurses Job Hunt

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Hello All,

I recently graduated from nursing school with my BSN in May and I have been applying to many jobs with no luck. My question is, Is a nurse externship considered Registered Nurse experience? In most of the positions they require 6 months or a year of experience as a RN. I worked for a local hospital as a nurse extern full-time for two years. Would this be considered RN experience?

Thanks for the responses!!!

:yes:

Not according to most employers because you were still in school. I'd definitely list it on your resume but it's not valid experience. Granted, you were doing real procedures to real patients in real medical settings, but you had a preceptor and were unlicensed.

Specializes in ICU + Infection Prevention.

"Close but no cigar."

List it as what it is. Employers will consider it for what it is. It may mean HR considers you for that job that says 6mo or 1yr experience... *maybe* depending on what you did.

Specializes in Telemetry, OB, NICU.

No, it's definitely not.

The fact is, you weren't a RN and not doing full RN duties.

Specializes in Psych ICU, addictions.

As healthcare experience, yes. As actual RN experience, no.

That being said, externship experience may count for something depending on the employer. It'd probably count for more if you applied to the facility that you did the externship in, since they'd already be familiar with what the job entailed...and possibly how you performed in it.

So alot of the jobs have a question for number of years experience as a nurse and number of years clinical experience as a nurse. I figure I would put it as 1-3 for the clinical experience. The worst they could say is no lol.

Its just difficult to find a job even with my externship experience. Im thinkin about teaching an allied health class at a community college or at a local school.

Specializes in Critical Care; Cardiac; Professional Development.

Actually the worst they could do is decide you are dishonest and put you on a Do Not Hire list, which you likely would not even know about other than just never getting calls to interview. Don't fudge or misrepresent yourself. Integrity holds heavier weight in this profession than in most any other. An externship is an externship, not nursing experience in any capacity.You were exposed to nursing practice. You were not, however, practicing as a nurse nor did you have the responsibilities that brings. Therefore you did not garner nursing experience. You did, however, gain exposure that others may not have and this may benefit you if you play your cards correctly. Believe me, if you call that clinical experience on a resume, nobody will be fooled by it. You simply will be chalked up to lacking integrity and at best be overlooked and at worst black-balled. Externships are common and everyone who works in nursing and HR knows the difference between working as an RN and working as an extern.

You know what I never thought of it that way!

I will definately not be putting that down as experience then!!

Thanks for this reply!!

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