PROFESSIONAL NURSES AND THE EXTERNSHIP EXPERIENCE: A DESCRIPTIVE STUDY (PROFESSIONAL SOCIALIZATION).
Contributors: Michigan State University.
Published: 1995
Number of pages: 82
Subjects: Health Sciences, Education.; Health Sciences, Nursing.; Education, Higher.
Description: During the most recent nursing shortage health care agencies devised a number of strategies to attract nurses. One of the most significant strategies was the offering of summer externships. These programs were designed primarily for nursing students who were between the junior and senior years in a nursing program. The agencies saw the programs as a way of potentially attracting future graduates and the students saw them as a way of gaining valuable work experience while getting paid for their services. An additional goal of the externship experience was to help bridge the gap between the idealism of nursing school and the reality of the workplace.

In 1986, the American Association of Colleges of Nursing published Essentials of College and University Education for Professional Nursing outlining professional socialization outcomes deemed necessary for the baccalaureate prepared nurse. This study describes the externship experience and the professional socialization that occurs within it.

Several previous studies had examined internships or preceptorships for which students received academic credit. There was a lack of empirical evidence demonstrating whether students in non-credit externships were becoming socialized to the professional role in part as a result of the experience.

The purpose of this study was to examine the perceptions of new graduate nurses regarding their socialization to the professional role. Comparisons were made between those nurses who participated in a summer externship program as students and those who did not.

Data were collected through a mailed survey sent to Spring, 1991, graduates of baccalaureate nursing programs in Michigan. Of the 225 respondents, 63 percent had participated in an externship program. Data analysis indicated that externs engaged in activities that were directly related to published professional socialization outcomes and, as newly registered nurses, scored significantly higher on a professional attitude inventory.

These findings support the value of an externship for nursing students. Evaluation of nursing curricula and modification of existing programs is needed in order that every student is assured of an experience that will assist in meeting the professional socialization outcomes.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 56-10, Section: B, page: 5403.

Thesis (PH.D.)--MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY, 1995.

School code: 0128.