7 More Months until I Graduate Nursing School!

I can hardly believe that I am through the halfway mark of my accelerated nursing program and I will graduate in only 7 months! I am so excited but am definitely feeling that I am not prepared but that seems to be the theme with most nursing students I guess. Work so far has been good (still only working on weekends) but I am currently interested in getting into some sort of nursing externship this summer. There are some I will probably not even apply for like the NYU summer student nurse extern program, which requires a 3.5 GPA. The distance would also be a hinderance since it would require travel by train AND bus which I am not trying to do. The hospital I work at has an 8 week student nurse extern program as well and it only requires a 3.0 GPA (my current GPA is around 3.3). I already applied (the deadline is next week) but there are several complications that may knock me out of the running: the position is full-time (I am in an accelerated program and take classes in the summer) and the program is geared to students graduating in either December 2018 or May 2019. The program also requires nurse externs to follow their preceptors' schedule which means I may have to miss class on occasion, not to mention working nights which for me is a no go. My oldest child will be 14 this year and I am not sure if and how she will be able to help me with her younger siblings as she will have her own things to deal with. I also considered transferring into a more hands on position (i.e. PCT) but not sure how practical that would be since I will only have the job for a few months. Then there are nurse resident programs which allow you to orient right into a specialty unit like critical care, ER, or pediatrics. Sure they don't always pay as well as the regular RN positions but the experience would be invaluable. So many decisions and so little time! To think this time last year I had only been accepted into Downstate's accelerated program for a month and was questioning whether or not I even made the right choice. Time really flies.