Second semester sophomore needs advise on how to find student nurse job.

Hello everyone, my name is Alonya and this fall I will begin my second clinical semester at Dominican University of California. I am currently researching how to acquire a student nurse position at a hospital. Does any one know if there are a minimum number of semesters that must be completed before someone is eligible for this position? Any recommendations will be greatly appreciated. :)

[suzanne4, RN]

How much clinical time have you had in your program as of now?

In a two year program, oyu can usually get hired as a nurse extern after one year of school. In the four year program, it is usually after your third year of schooling because of the way that your clinicals are set up. Not familiar with the curriculum at your specific school , but these are general guidelines.

You usually have to be in your last year for the student nurse positions, but there are other positions that are available in most facilities.

[wonderbee, BSN, RN]

Have you had the basics... changing an occupied bed, patient hygiene, taking vital signs? If you have, you would qualify for a basic nursing assistant job. Go online to the hospital websites and fill out applications. Or talk to someone in your clinical facility where you're currently rotating about a position there if you like the place. Sometimes facilities recruit directly recruit from the schools in the form of job fairs. You shouldn't have a hard time finding something.

[Animaniacs, BSN, RN]

Yeah, it depends on your school. I know for my area, after the first semester, we are qualified to do externship. my progam is a 2 year associates in nursing program. then there are BSN programs in some areas, where they can do externship after 2 semesters. I guess it varies.

I'm also a nursing student looking for work oppurtunity was a nurse extern preferably. I also have a similar question (i think)

I've completed and passed all the nursings skills at skills lab. I just finished my first year, and in my area, we are qualified to be externs after we finish our first semester. I've had 4 clinicals in 4 hospitals so far in my first year; 2 of them at med-surg floors. I've gotten the oppurtunity to do vital signs, I&O, physical assessments, providing AM care, giving medications PO, IV, SQ. but that's about it, i dont get plenty of hands on besides the basics.

I've never worked a day in my life before such as paid work, I have not had any. I did one volunteer work for 50 hours in the hospital, but that's it.

What are my chances of getting hired as an extern, considering i have zero paid work experience whatsoever? I'd say in my opinion, very very slim if any at all :Melody: , but damn, I want to do externship, because I dont get much hands on during clinicals. I only have a year left before graduation from my Associates in Nursing program.

[Alonya]

First off, I want to thank all of you sooo much for taking the time to help me, I appreciate the time it takes to reply to someone's questions. I am currently enrolled in a BSN program and will be starting my 2nd clinical semester, which will be in med-surg. Last semester my rotation was in the Rehab.dept. During my first semester I did:vitals, AM care, physical assessments, bed-making, NG tube feedings and gave PO meds. After reading your reply's I contacted someone in Human Resources at one of local hospitals. It seems that in my neck of the woods I need to have completed 1 year of clinicals in order to work as a student nurse. However, she did recommend that I apply for an on-call Admitting Rep. position so that I would have an "inside edge" once I complete clinicals in December. Having said that, I was wondering if any one could tell me if the Nursing Recruiters in HR work with student nurses or do they only deal with licensed nurses?

Have a wonderful day everyone

[suzanne4, RN]

The nurse recruiters deal only with licensed nurses. You would need to go thru the regular HR depta at this point.

[HeartsOpenWide, RN]

Are you doing this to get your foot in the door or to just have a job while going to school? If you just want a school job, try applying at a Dr.Office, if you can take vitals, give injections, draw blood, wound care, assist in basic procedures such as pap smears, sigmoidoscopy, cast application and removal and know the basic medications out there, you should have no problem finding a job in that setting.

[Laura2000mi]

The hospitals in my area will hire nurse externs after they complete Meg-Surg I, which is 2nd semester of my BSN program.