Volunteering/Internship

[Kendel.G]

I'm finally in my last major semester of pre-reqs (In the spring all I have is stats and developmental psych and I'll have already turned in my applications, so I consider this Fall my last semester)!!! Anyways, realizing that some of my nursing school applications open up on October1st (yikes!), I began to panic about the health care experience hours that many schools require in supplement to pre-reqs.

I had a measly 24 hours of shadowing on a geriatrics med-surg floor. Not a stand out volunteer expirience.

So, about a month ago I sent out about a dozen emails and called all the hospitals in my area. "Sorry, we're full...we have too many pre-nursing volunteers...try a nursing home... No thank you.... we'll get back to you..." And that was the response I received if I got one at all, many places didn't return my calls or emails.

Panic. Shear panic.

When school started and as the hustle and bustle of normal life began, and summer days on the beach became a memory, my search for an internship was pushed to the back of my mind.

September 1st rolled around and I realized that I had one month to change my situation or else my applications would be doomed. My sister suggested that I go door to door and leave letters at some offices that I would like to work at. So yesterday, armed with fifteen manilla envelopes and a strategically planned route that covered about a 60 mile radius, I set off to boldly enter the offices of high end surgeons and plead my case.

Six offices into my expedition I was discouraged. I never got past the front desk, I heard things like "Don't call us, we'll call you...I'll give this to the office manager...We don't take skinny little girls in this office (yes, for real)...I'll set this on the doctor's desk...We'll get back to you." When I finally arrived at my top choice (a cutting edge pediatric cardiologist) I was discouraged, tired, and dripping with sweat (It's still in the low hundreds where I live).

I walked in and said my peace to the girl at the front desk, and handed her the letter. She told be to call back next week and see if there would be an opening. Dejected, but filled with just a little more hope than when I walked in, I turned to leave.

"Actually, wait right there a second!" She said before rushing down the hall, my manilla envelope in her hand.

I waited a few minutes before she appeared empty handed, my heart sunk. Half a minute later, a young doctor walked out holding my envolope. He introduced himself and shook my hand.

"Hello, I'm Dr. ---. Come on back to my office and I'd love to discuss you joining our team." He said before leading me down the hallway.

We sat down and discussed my goals, aspirations, and what I was looking for in an internship. The most I was expecting was being able to do office work. The plan he had shocked me.

"Well, its easy to tell you are the best and the brightest. We definitely want you here. You can help with the office and organizational stuff, but we'd also like to teach you to run EKG and our other diagnostic tests as well as to do introductory patient care. I will fill out all of your recommendations for school as well. Can you start after the weekend?"

I almost jumped for joy! On Tuesday I begin my internship at the leading pediatric cardiologist in my area!

So anyways, the point of this long winded post is to encourage all you soon to be nurses out there. Sometimes things don't go exactly as planned, but when you put in a little extra foot work, people will see it.