It was a good way to get comfortable with various basic nursing skills such as bathing, vitals, feeding, turning, sitting with 1:1 patients, as well as some problem solving. It definitely helps to build confidence for clinical!
What I wish was different
The hospital itself was just falling apart. They are a very tiny hospital so you don't get to see much and sometimes there are barely any patients to take care of because the hospital is not equip to handle very many cases. Most serious cases get rerouted to other nearby hospitals so a lot of times there is not much to do. On the flipside, the hospital is also extremely understaffed so when there are a lot of patients, it got pretty crazy sometimes. The nurses would be all over the place and extremely stressed (understandably) and so sometimes the standard of care was very much below what we are taught at Villanova. So it wasn't exactly a great place to learn skills and techniques that great nurses use.
Advice
Honestly, I would not recommend working at JRH at all. I think that having a nursing internship is GREAT, and it is so helpful when it comes to clinical, but try and find a better hospital that will be more open to helping you grow as a nurse!
