Hello all! For this post, I wanted to share some job ideas for nursing students and. These are also awesome jobs for high schoolers that are interested in nursing/medicine or other healthcare majors!. The catch with all these positions is that none of them are the typical Certified Nurse’s Assistant positions. These roles will help you make some extra cash while gaining that invaluable experience! Keep reading if you are interested.

This post is not sponsored. All thoughts and opinions are my own and do not refect the entirety of nursing.

Want to get into healthcare? Well, get some experience.

Ah yes, the age old advice to get experience before commiting to the field. Many of you may be asking how? The most common advice for nursing students “work as a CNA”. The answer may not be clear for other healthcare majors. I did not choose that route and shared it on this blog a while ago. I turned out okay and I wanted to share there are other options to gain interesting experience.

Side note: The first three are actually positions I worked during nursing school and after passing NCLEX before working as an ER nurse!

1. UNIT SECRETARY

In my opinion, Unit Secretary is a great position for almost any healthcare student major. Depending on the hospital you work at there may be varying levels. Some may allow you a small amount of paitent contact and you may even get the opportunity to learn your arrythmias (invaluable for by nursing and pre-meds out there).

As a Secretary you will answer call lights, answer unit phone call, page physicians, call codes, coordinate equipment delivery to the unit that the nurses need and so much more! A big reason why I suggest this role is because you may have downtime to work on assignments, study, etc. If you are intersted in becoming a physician, I highly suggest trying to get into an ER or ICU. You will see a lot and may interact with doctors more (more in the ER). If you want to learn how a unit runs, this is the way to go!

2. MONITOR TECHNICIAN/TELEMETRY TECHNICIAN

This job right here was one of my favorite roles to be floated for! As a Monitor Technician you basically watch cardiac rhythms of patients on various units throughout the hospital. Your role is to watch for any abnormalities from the patients’ baseline and alert the nurse via. telephone or whatever communication system your hospital uses. Things can get pretty exciting too if you have to call a unit to call a code. This position is awesome for anyone aspiring to be an ER/ICU/Cardiology nurse or provider for obvious reasons.

3. PATIENT OBSERVER

This position is not for the faint of heart. As a Patient Observer, you will basically sit near psychiatric patients who are suicidal, homicidal or need close observation for safety/elopement risk. You may also sit with older patients who attempt to get out of bed and are extremely high fall risks. This position is best served when in an Emergency Room. Am I biased? Probably, but, you will see the most here and may rotate through multiple patients per shift. Be aware! This role can become exhausting because you sit the whole time. This role is ideal if you are interested in Psychology or Psychiatry.

4. PHLEBOTOMIST

Do you enjoy hands on work and are interested in becoming a “good stick”? If so and you are willing to take a short certification course, you can become a phlebotomist! As a phlebotomist, you will collect blood work from patients and send them to the lab for analysis. This job can be performed in a traditional hospital setting or even in a clinic/office setting! Although this skill is an interesting one to have I think those going for nursing would benefit the most!

5. MEDICAL SCRIBE

This final role, is one that was pretty common when I was in nursing school (aside from CNA). As a medical scribe you are responsible for performing documentation for a physician. This role allows you to become familiar with Electronic Health Records (EHR), medical terminology as well as provide you the oportunity to interact closely with physicians. I believe future physicians, physician assistants and even nurses can benefit from this role!

There you go! Five positions that are awesome for healthcare students. The best thing about these positions is that you will more than likely be able to find PRN positions that you can flex with academics and extracurriculars. Stay tuned as I plan on sharing more jobs like these. I am hoping this can be a help to someone. Let’s build those resumes!