As you complete your nursing education, a crucial step to becoming a professional nurse is to participate in an internship program. A nursing internship will allow you to transition from classroom experience to clinical practice. Most internship opportunities for nurses today will include some classroom time as well as clinical experience. The experience of hands-on care is priceless and will be a benefit to you as you seek employment. You will find that interns play a key role in the care and treatment of patients, and it can be very rewarding. Depending on where you live, there are many opportunities for nursing internships.
Obstetrics and Gynecology Nursing Internships
Nursing interns in obstetrics and gynecology will receive in-depth training in all aspects of women’s health care. In addition to obstetrics and gynecology, the training will include paternity DNA testing, family planning, primary care, oncology issues for women, reproduction endocrinology and infertility and maternal fetal medicine.
Emergency Room Internships
This type of internship is available to nurses with no emergency room experience. Lasting for several months, the internship will help you to develop the skills necessary to work and be a contributing member of a fast paced emergency room team. You will provide care for a variety of patients with minor injuries to critical are.
Oncology Nursing Internships
As an oncology intern, you will work over a period of several weeks under the direction of a supervisor, and learn to administer the chemotherapeutic agents for cancer patients. Working very closely with experienced nurses, you will learn measurement skills and learn the skills needed to deal with patients who have adverse reactions.
Pediatric Nursing Internships
Within the hospital setting, pediatric nursing interns will get experience working with acute care pediatric patients. Working with experienced nurses, you provide aid to children from neonatal to eighteen years old. Pediatric internships generally last several months.
Geriatric Nursing Internships
As an intern in a geriatric nursing program, you will learn the skills needed for providing clinical care to senior citizens living in nursing facilities. This includes learning about, managing and preventing geriatric syndromes and evaluating cognitive problems while developing treatment plans for older patients.
Operating Room Nurse Internships
You will find the operating room nurse internship to be challenging and fulfilling. Interns will work with professional nurses to acquire the knowledge and skills that are necessary to offer optimal outcomes for patients undergoing surgery or other invasive procedures in a surgical setting. Specific areas for surgical care include neurology, gastroenterology, trauma, pulmonary and orthopedics.
Cardiovascular Nursing Internships
The essentials of a cardiovascular internship will give you the necessary experience to work in the cardiac telemetry area. You will learn EKG interpretation, cardiac physiology and anatomy, emergency protocols, and cardiovascular crisis intervention procedures. Cardiovascular Nursing internships will take a few months to complete.
Critical Care Nursing Internships
A critical care nursing internship is a program where you will have the opportunity to learn skills in the critical care environment. This will include information and practical skill development on the use of emergency pharmaceuticals, EKG interpretation, emergency protocols, and pulmonary and cardiac monitoring and interpretation.
Neonatal ICU Nursing Internships
Internships in the Neonatal ICU will cover the clinical opportunities that begin with basic care for helping stable, healthy preemies and will progress to working with advanced care for infants in the higher acuity Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.
In addition to all of these opportunities, there are also nursing internships available abroad. Many of the hospitals in these programs are short staffed so, as a nurse intern; you will get an opportunity to become involved in in-depth patient care. Additionally, you will have the opportunity to deal with cases rarely found in the United States or North America.
Opportunities abound for those looking for nursing internships in all areas of medicine. Talk to your adviser about what might be best for you.