Nurse Extern Summer Program

Speaker 1

Which way are we going to roll? You got to decide that first. So you guys want to roll that way? So that means you, hand up here on the shoulder.

Janiya Bernard

I decided to do this program because I wanted the real feel of how it'll be to be a nurse. Because clinicals, yes, we do have a clinical instructor and we do a lot of skills, but with a nurse externship, having a nurse as a preceptor, you're much more hands-on and you get the one-on-one explanations and the teachings and it's just really a lot more beneficial than clinicals.

Speaker 3

One thing that's important, once you expose your trauma patients, you want to cover them up and keep them warm.

Austin Minish

I decided to do the extern program because I saw it as an opportunity just to gain more experience outside of being in the hospital during school and just getting familiar with a bunch of different devices and stuff that we may encounter. I think it gives you a realistic outlook of what you'll be doing as a nurse, as you're working your assigned nurse's schedule, hours and everything like that. You get the full picture instead of just the few hours you spend during a clinical through school.

Sarah Hobby

The little, minuscule things that maybe I've only seen once or twice in clinicals, but in here I can practice it every day. It can be as little as getting a blood glucose level and just practicing that so when I go back to clinical, I can feel more confident just doing those minuscule things and just be a more confident student nurse.

Speaker 6

inaudible crest, which going to say they're right here. Press down and in to see if it feels stable.

Allison Bacon

There's several topics in which they talk about in workshops, in your clinical areas you can be put anywhere from geriatrics, cardiology, ICUs, med-surg, anything like that, general medicine. And then for topics, we focus primarily on specific things like specialties, like pediatrics or ICUs. And this has really helped me open my horizons to things I never thought I would like before. And so I think it gives people a chance to learn new things, get new experiences, and try to figure out what they're really passionate about.

DeYanna Jones

I feel really good. I feel like I got way more experience than I would've gotten just going through school by itself. In our school, we didn't really get to go to the ICU, I guess because they don't really want just students around the critical patients. But here I get to be in the room with them and see exactly what happens, what the process is for nurses to admitting patients. I was nervous about having to be the nurse in the room and having to talk to families. And if they're sitting there, what to say to them because you don't want to leave them just watching everything. But I feel like now I confidently can talk to families and help them feel comforted.

Speaker 9

We can attach this to our syringe. All right. And then go ahead and give that med for me. Me. Where's that one going to go?

Janiya Bernard

Inside.

Speaker 9

Yep.

Sydney Wyatt

I think it's really important being with a nurse and learning their ins and outs and their clinical reasonings behind different things. And also getting to work alongside with other disciplines like PT, OT, the doctors, even just trying to get to know them and getting to know their explanations of different interventions and rationales behind those. And it really becomes a full circle moment whenever you learn something in nursing school and then you see it in practice. And it's nice that I'm seeing it now versus whenever I'm a new grad, already graduated.

Karla Medina Galvan

You have a nurse's work schedule and so you might just be busy three days out of that week, you still have four days to do other things that you want to do. Maybe even get a second job because I have a second job. And so it's so flexible at the same time and you're gaining all this experience. And something that I kept reminding myself throughout the program was the level of comfort that I would be at going back to school in my new rotation. Because I feel with school, a lot of the preceptors might be a little bit scared or a little bit edgy as to what they can do or not let you do since you're out of sight and you'll be with another nurse. And being here with the same nurse all the way around was able to let them see your growth and your comfort, what you're able to do. And you're able to do a lot more than just with one teacher at a school one day a week. And I'm excited to see how I'm able to reflect that going back to school.