Hello everyone! I have officially completed my Nurse Extern program and am so sad it is over. I had a blast and was so grateful to be one of forty. I decided to share my “rankings” for my three rotations.

The three rotations I was assigned for the summer were: Medical Telemetry, Emergency Department and General Pediatrics. These were all what I requested. The Medical Telemetry may come as a shock for anyone who knows me, but each Extern was assigned a Med-Surg rotation. Emergency and Peds are clear interests for me. I spent a month in each rotations and spent a day per each rotation completing “enhancement days”. My enhancement days were as follows: Trauma Nurse Leader, EMS and Interventional Radiology. I will not be rating those as they were only a day. Let’s get to the ratings!

#3 Medical Telemetry

Do not get me wrong, I learned so much on Telemetry. I had my first code there and really received a plenty of skills practice. However, the unit made me feel a little depressed (speaking from past experience). I felt like my participating in patient care, I was enabling rather than helping, especially after seeing how many pills were pushed. I also felt like it was a lost cause, because people are not going to change their lifestyles… The nurse I worked with was great and allowed me to do everything, but she made a statement that disheartened me. She said “I don’t question orders or even think about them, I just do them”. That is not the way my mind works, as I am more curious and will try to put the pieces together (from my scope of practice of course). My Telemetry experience was alright, but is not for me. I have to give credit to nurses (especially new grads who work on these types of floors)…

#2 General Pediatrics

I know, I know! I can’t believe Peds was my second pick. I spent time on a Med-Surg peds floor and although I enjoyed working with the children and teaching their families, something was missing. I am not sure if I am meant to be a floor Peds nurse at this point in my life.  I completed so many tasks! I got a lot of IV Med practice, medication administration (the art of bribing😂), as well as finger sticks.

#1 ED

My second rotation was spent working in a small-town, country ER and I loved it. I enjoyed the small time atmosphere so much! The staff were absolutely amazing. I was especially surprised because the doctors and PAs actually acknowledged me and were very willing to teach and treat me as a member of the team. I also enjoyed the variety of patients. I had children up to geriatrics which was a great learning experience! I also loved how laid back the nurses were. They saved IV sticks and blood draws for me which was so sweet. I will say I completed the most skills here and had a blast doing so. I also have so many stories from this rotation (not to mention the others).

This blog post is a very brief summary of my externship. At this point I am about a month into my first semester of my senior year and I cannot be more grateful for the experience I had this summer. Being able to take care of different patients and deal with death, grief, drama, nursing politics, etc. has taught me so much! I am already amazed at how my thinking has developed into “nursing mode”. I was hoping that this experience would help me grow and it did. I can’t explain everything in words. I am just grateful. I would highly recommend an externship to any nursing student.

Thanks for reading,

Anna