how does one go about finding an internship?

Simply telephone the hospitals in the city in which you will be living. Ask to speak with the Nurse Recruiter. Tell that person that you are looking for new grad orientation program in a NICU.

Remember that while many hospitals use the term "internship" for such program, not all hospitals do. Some use the term "residency." Others don't use any special term at all: they simply refer to their programs as orientation programs that are geared for new graduates. For example, I work at a large children's hospital. We hire new graduates all-year round and also hire nurses with one or two years of adult experience. We have found that both these groups have extensive orientation needs -- so we don't limit our in-depth orientation program to only new grads. We offer it to everyone who needs it. That's why we don't call it a "new grad internship." But if you look at the orientation program in detail, it matches up very well with what most hospitals would call an "internship."

So ... just call or write the hospital ... make contact contact with them and find the individual who recuits and hires nurses ... simply ask them in a straighforward way to tell you about their orientation programs. A good hospital will have answers for you already prepared to share with you. They will have a program that they want to tell you about.

If they don't have a NICU, they will simply tell you that, too.

Good luck,

llg

No problem. If I were moving to Australia, I would be asking a lot of "easy" questions, too. Going to a new place can be intimidating and you never know when the local culture and usual practices will differ from what you are used to. In this case, it's probably pretty similar in the US as it is in Australia ... but you never know when you'll run into something different.

Please don't hesitate to ask further questions as they come up.

Take care,

llg