If you have an office practice in which you see patients, you might find a student nurse useful. A student nurse is a nurse-in-training. Using a student nurse could be beneficial in several ways — the student nurse could use the opportunity of working in your office to expand his/her skills and you would have an inexpensive assistant as well as have the opportunity to teach.

Having a student nurse work in your practice may take some planning. While thinking about including a student nurse in your practice, here are some things to consider:

1. Utilize job boards to find student nurses to work in you office.

2. Contact local nursing schools to set up internships for student nurses.

3. Consider further education about student nursing.

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Advertise on job boards to locate a student nurse

Online job boards offer a simple and inexpensive option for locating study nurses. You can focus your search to your area of the country or open the position up nationally.

I recommend: You can post your student nurse job on MySpace or on Nurse.com. You can also advertise for a student nurse on a forum like Allnurses.com.

Find student nurse recruitting tools

In order to find student nurse for your practice, you can contact nursing schools or nursing associations and discuss hiring a student nurse for your practice. You can also contact a student nurse provider and obtain a student nurse list of interested parties. There are many helpful recrutting tools available at your fingertips.

I recommend: All Star Directories allows you to search for student nurse programs in your area. HealtheCareers Network is a useful recruitment tool that allows you to post on many separate job boards with just one site.

Obtain further student nurse information

Get information to help utilize the student nurse more effectively. Depending on which services you offer in your practice, there are several sources for further education about the role of student nurses and nurses in general.

I recommend: The National Student Nurses' Association has several publications directly related to student nurses. The American Association of Colleges of Nursing publishes several white papers and journals that address issues for student nurses and licensed nurses.

Tips & Tactics

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  Determine which type of student nurse you need. Do you use licensed practical nurses or a registered nurses? The type of work that the student nurse will perform directs you to what type that you need.
• •  Since a student nurse is a nurse-in-training, you have to make sure that your office or practice is ready. All employees -- permanent or temporary -- should be covered by the malpractice insurance.