Wednesday, January 17, 2018

Accelerated Nursing Programs and Nursing Externships Don't Mix!

One of the major benefits of an accelerated nursing program is that students who have already "been there, done that" can get a nursing degree faster, right? The degree is obtained faster not because there is less work in the curriculum but everything is condensed so students attend school year round, including summer, while traditional students are off. Fair trade off? Maybe, maybe not. The thing is, most summer externship programs for nursing students during the summer are full-time programs. This is fine for traditional students who are off during summer but for accelerated students, this is a big problem since 10 times out of 10 accelerated students are not only taking classes, but are probably doing so on a full-time basis. Why am I bringing this up then? Well as you know I am doing any and everything possible to gain as much health care experience as I can before I graduate because I don't want to be "caught out there" when I graduate (sorry just not trying to be one of those new grads spending  6 months to a year plus looking for my first nursing gig; I'm too damn old for that). Now the good thing is I do work in a hospital and my job is useful experience, but I would actually like to touch a patient, not to mention I didn't leave my desk job of over a decade to pursue a nursing career only to work another desk job but I digress. There were two summer externship programs that I felt could have been perfect for me, only to find out I will not qualify for either position since I cannot commit to a full-time work schedule (I actually had a phone interview with one of the organizations and the recruiter specifically told me this). Honestly it hurts and it's a little frustrating but I almost never give up so I will keep pushing until I find something that will give me good hands on experience and align with my interest until I am actually a RN.

So what can accelerated students do? My advice would be to obtain any per diem or part-time job in a hospital or healthcare organization, even if it isn't hands on. I would even go as far as to suggest getting a non-paid or volunteer position if it healthcare related (but that would be a last resort since I feel that broke adult students should be getting some sort of paycheck but again I digress). Why? because you have to do something to market yourself and you don't want to be "caught out there." Sure there is the whole option to relocate to where the jobs might be, blah, blah, blah, but if you are like me (and many accelerated and traditional nursing students are), uprooting your life is not even an option. Does all this guarantee a job within 3 months of graduation? No, but why not do what you can to increase your prospects? Now I am off to study and get back on my grind.

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