Nurse Extern, Antepartum

About the Role

• Program: Student Nurse Extern Program
• Dates: May 24 – July 31, 2027
• Goal: To provide prelicensure nursing students with an immersive experience to enhance their foundational nursing education and role socialization within a clinical setting.
• Setting: 3 Women's Antepartum, a 13-bed inpatient unit caring for high-risk antepartum patients and some overflow postpartum couplets and GYN patients.

Key Responsibilities

• Observe, collect, and document patient information and report significant changes in patient condition to a registered nurse or provider.
• Participate in the collaborative identification and reporting of patient safety issues.
• Assist patients and their families during admission, orientation, and discharge.
• Provide care/treatments as outlined in the plan of care, including:
• Measurement of vital signs, height, and weight.
• Specimen collection.
• Skin preps/scrubs.
• Catheter care.
• Capillary blood glucose checks.
• Simple wound care.
• Range of motion exercises.
• Postural drainage.
• Supportive 1:1 patient and family interactions.
• Provide direct personal care for routine activities of daily living such as bathing, dressing, feeding, and assisting with ambulation.
• Provide indirect care to patients and the assigned area, including:
• Cleaning the work area.
• Changing linens.
• Re-stocking supplies.
• Cleaning/sterilizing instruments.
• Transporting patients/supplies/specimens.
• Assisting in the orientation of new employees and students.
• Performing routine clerical functions.
• Reinforce routine teaching given to patients by the registered nurse or provider and document patient understanding.
• Assist providers and other health care providers with routine examinations and procedures, and procurement of equipment and supplies during emergency situations.
• In the psychiatric setting (if applicable): Aids patients in reality orientation, participates in behavior modification plans/therapy, provides informal support therapy, provides verbal de-escalation, aids in physical management of aggressive patients, facilitates age-appropriate play for children, and monitors therapeutic milieu activities.

Requirements & Tech Stack

• English Fluency: Fluent in verbal and written English.
• Organizational Skills: Ability to organize and prioritize assignments in the delivery of patient care.
• Competencies: Attainment and maintenance of unit-specific competencies.
• Computer Skills: Basic computer skills.
• Physical Demands:
• Lift and carry 40-50 lbs.
• Push/pull patients on a bed or stretcher (requires 29 lbs. push force).
• Lateral transfers up to 50 lbs. of patient's weight.
• Frequent to continuous standing/walking.
• Kneeling, bending, squatting, and performing CPR may be required.

Qualifications

• Education:
• High school diploma or GED required; higher-level degree may satisfy this requirement.
• Current enrollment in an accredited prelicensure nursing program with anticipated graduation within 12 months from the start of the student nurse externship.
• Licensure/Certification:
• Listed as Nursing Assistant I with the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services.
• Basic Life Support (BLS) certification.
• Professional Experience: None required.