Missouri Baptist Medical Center externs get ‘real world’ experience
Posted By: dschillinger 
Date Posted: September 7th, 2011 Category: Caregiving
MBMC • Nursing students entering their senior year of college can experience the “real world” of nursing firsthand at Missouri Baptist Medical Center.
MBMC’s nine-week Student Nurse Externship program pairs nursing students in their final one or two semesters with experienced BSN- or MSN-prepared preceptors in their clinical area of interest. The students, under direct supervision of their RN preceptors, take on many of the responsibilities
of a registered nurse, providing direct patient care and performing other clinical nursing functions.
Gaining knowledge and experience in a clinical setting beyond the clinical rotations that nursing students experience in school helps increase the students’ clinical competence and confidence, says Becky Menley, Student Nurse Externship program coordinator.
“I love to read the students’ journal entries each week and see how excited the externs are with each new clinical encounter,” Menley says. “The externs seem to gain an even greater respect for the nurses in the clinical setting each week. I can read how there is a greater bond between them and their preceptor.
“I think there is a repetitive theme among the externs this summer,” Menley adds. “They all expressed that they could never have gotten this ‘real’ experience in clinical nursing from the ‘ideal’ nursing school setting. I’m pleased that I’m able to work with such a bright group of nursing students.”
Decreased turnover
Nursing students participating in Missouri Baptist Medical Center’s Student Nurse Externship program get hands-on experience in nursing during their senior year of college. | Photo by Elizabeth White
According to national statistics, 40-60 percent of new graduate nurses leave their hospital within the first two years. MBMC’s turnover rate is lower than the national norm, and the extern program is one of the hospital’s ways of decreasing the turnover rate of new graduates. Menley says the Student Nurse Externship program provides the supportive environment that’s needed to develop organizational, critical-thinking and leadership skills, better preparing new graduates for the complexities of health care today.
Eileen Berlin, clinical education specialist and one of the Student Nurse Externship coordinators, says the program helps the students by “cementing their confidence and passion for nursing,” as well as their clinical area of practice. Berlin says some externs may change their mind about working in a particular clinical area, based on their real-world experience, while others may have their choices solidified.
“Normally, new nurses are overwhelmed when they start working at their first hospital after graduating from school,” Berlin says. “Some haven’t had the chance to work in their clinical area of interest, and after they start working, they may discover that they wish to change clinical areas and have to leave the hospital to do so.”
Jan Marienau, past program coordinator and current clinical education specialist, says in addition to giving students a taste of what nursing will be like, the Student Nurse Externship teaches different skills than those taught in a classroom. “You can teach a nurse physical skills easily, but teaching those intuitive skills — organization, prioritization — that’s hard,” Marienau says.
Berlin says many of the externs apply to MBMC after graduation, because they become comfortable with the hospital’s values.
‘A special edge’
Private donors provide individual scholarships to fund the program. Student extern Jill Schwendemann recently spoke at MBMC’s “Celebration of Nursing” scholarship event. Schwendemann is a Maryville University nursing student who’s pursuing a nursing career after working in the human resources field for several years. In addition to spending this summer as a student nurse extern in the acute cardiac care unit, Schwendemann also works as a full-time patient care tech in the neuro/renal department at MBMC.
“The program gives the externs a special edge as we finish schooling by allowing us to practice nursing in real situations, using the latest technology and medical procedures,” Schwendemann says. “We are learning skills that can’t always be taught in a classroom, such as how to gracefully care for our patients and their families and how to manage time while being flexible to meet patient demands. You can see why each of us flies out of our beds each day this summer to be a nurse extern at MoBap.”