BS in Nursing student Mae Copley. |
As an undergraduate nursing student, you might have heard of something called a nurse externship. A nurse externship allows student nurses to gain real-world nursing experience in a hospital setting.
Mae Copley, a BS in Nursing student at the University of Colorado Anschutz College of Nursing, started a nurse externship at Swedish Medical Center in Englewood in her final semester of nursing school, and explains why this experience is so valuable in fine-tuning her nursing skills.
There Are Certain Requirements
To apply for a nurse externship, you need to be attending an accredited nursing school and have passed Med Surg. When you apply, you will have to go through the interview process. Depending on where you apply, externships might be paid or unpaid.
Copley works two 12-hour shifts per month. Your schedule will depend on where you conduct your externship: Copley says Swedish Medical Center will let her pick any two days a month she wants to work, and she can pick up extra shifts. Keep in mind that most externships are “as needed,” so your schedule may not be consistent.
What You’ll Do
As a nurse extern, you report to nurses and doctors and have the opportunity to shadow nurses. You’ll perform tasks similar to those of a Certified Nursing Assistant or patient care tech.
“You can do things you’ve learned in school, like inserting an IV, drawing blood, recording and monitoring vital signs, and doing medical record paperwork,” Copley says. “You’ll do all of this under the supervision of a registered nurse.”
Even though you’ll do tasks with a nurse’s supervision, you won’t be paired with a nurse or a preceptor. Copley says she receives patient reports, sometimes between one and eight.
“An externship is way more hands-on than a clinical,” Copley says. “You’re also part of the team because you’re their co-worker.”
Every Shift is Different
Externs typically get floated first – meaning they’re sent to hospital floors that need the most help. For example, if you’re assigned to the cardiology floor and, at the start of the shift, you find out the Med Surg floor is understaffed, as an extern, you’ll be moved to the Med Surg floor.
"I really wanted an externship because I felt like it would help me get a job after nursing school, but I also wanted exposure to different hospital systems. I think that’s what’s helpful about an externship: you get exposed to different patient populations, different floors, and different hospitals, and you get a feel for what you like and don’t like.”
“I specifically signed up for a float pool, so I’m not assigned to a certain floor. I go to any floor where I'm needed,” Copley says. “I did that because I wanted to be exposed to as many areas of the hospital as possible.”
Speak Up and Ask to Learn
During one of her externship shifts, Copley sometimes talks to nurses on her floor and learns from them. She’s asked to observe or help with certain tasks, tips on passing the NCLEX, or for career advice.
“I feel like I’ve gotten a lot more opportunities in my externship compared to some of my clinicals, which I’m so grateful for,” she says. “It has helped me form relationships and learn the flow of how things are done.”
She cites one example when she saw a nurse help a patient sit up in bed (called boosting a patient).
“I saw her put the bed in a certain way, and it was so smart because she was essentially using gravity to help a patient sit up,” she says. “It was so obvious – and so life-changing because it will help me when I treat patients. It’s little things like this that have helped me become a better nurse.”
Getting Comfortable in a Hospital Setting
A nurse externship also helps you become more comfortable in a hospital setting, giving you a more in-depth look at how things are run and where things are on your assigned floor.
“It’s the small things, like getting comfortable in the supply room,” Copley says. “And, it’s about getting comfortable on your floor, being on your feet for 12 hours, and balancing a schedule.”
Copley says her externship helped her understand how she works in a hospital setting and manage her time well.
“It’s about structuring your day, including figuring out what patients to see first and how to take care of what they need. It’s important to see how nurses are balancing everything because I’ll be doing that once I graduate," she says.
