Health systems and universities are increasingly offering externship programs to help nursing students gain practical experience before graduation.
Some health systems — such as New Hyde Park, N.Y.-based Northwell Health — have offered externship opportunities for decades. In recent years, more organizations have adopted them as they look to bolster their talent pipelines and reduce spending on contract labor after the pandemic.
The externships allow systems to engage with nurses earlier in their educational journeys, give them real-world experience before entering the workforce and convert those connections into valuable talent gains.
Nashville, Tenn.-based Vanderbilt University Medical Center is among the systems leaning into this trend. It relaunched an eight-week paid externship program this summer for 70 qualified prelicensure nursing students. The program offers students hands-on clinical experience under the supervision of nurse preceptors, helping them build confidence and clinical competency before entering the workforce.
After the externship, participants will be eligible to fill available roles at VUMC. The program also serves as a pathway to the system's nurse residency program, which supports students' transition to professional practice, according to a July 31 news release.
Greenville, N.C.-based ECU Health also recently graduated its first class of more than two dozen students from a new externship program launched with East Carolina University College of Nursing. Through the program, students are certified as nursing assistants and work in various care settings across the system, honing their soft skills, such as comforting patients and communicating complex medical terminology.
"We are very thankful for ECU Health's efforts to give our students a chance to learn some of the inner workings of their profession now, before they graduate. Once they are licensed and at the bedside, their nurse managers, and more importantly their patients, will rely on them to be ready on day one, and this experience puts them in an excellent position to be ready," Bim Akintade, PhD, dean of East Carolina College of Nursing, said in an Aug. 12 news release.
The externship programs illustrate how health systems are rethinking hiring and employing creative strategies to increase their talent pipeline, especially for nurses. Though hospital employment levels now exceed pre-pandemic levels, registered nurse remains the most in-demand healthcare job, according to a July 11 analysis from LinkedIn.