Nursing is a popular and demanding profession among many youths nowadays, but do they really know what it’s all about? Sophie Scarlato, an aspiring nurse on track to study at Salve Regina University, delved deeper into the nursing progression through her Midstate Medical Center internship.

“At our internship we went twice a week for four hours, we had to go for four hour shifts. We went around the pavilions, there were four different pavilions, and they all had geriatric patients or patients who were recovering from surgery. We walked around and made sure the patients had their water, and had anything they needed to have to be comfortable and safe: we got them food, we got them water, and helped with their luggage. We practically were assistants to the nurses and helped them out with anything they needed,” Scarlato explained.

Scarlato was exposed to the hospital environment, patients, and different nurses working at MidState. She was surrounded by professionals in the field, and got to experience their day to day work lives. From this, Scarlato learned a lot of new things about the nursing profession.

“I learned some basic skills as a nurse, I learned how to better communicate with patients, I learned the basic setup of a hospital and their basic routine which I really think will help me understand what I am doing in the future,” said Scarlato.

Over the course of her internship, Scarlato’s involvement in the hospital and with the nurses have been nothing but positive. From these newfound experiences and knowledge, her ambition to pursue a career in the nursing field have only grown stronger.

“Something I would do differently is probably try to find an internship where I can definitely shadow someone. It was very last minute but it turned out there was someone who I couldn’t shadow at MidState, so I wasn’t able to get that full experience. I would recommend the Danbury 360 program, and just do it fully online or find another alternative,” Scarlato explained.

Despite the lack of mentorship during her internship, Scarlato still made the very best out of the situation. She had more liberty to independently lead her own internship experience, and Scarlato took initiative to achieve what she individually wanted from the experience. Even so, an internship is supposed to provide the intern with a mentor to learn from.

“Personally I wouldn’t recommend the MidState internship, because we didn’t have anyone to shadow there, and I feel that wasn’t fair since in past years intern’s had medical professionals they were able to shadow. I will say that it is also very important to do an internship if you have a career path you want to go down, because it is a good way to experiment with your career interests,” Scarlato said.

So for all the juniors out there, the MidState internship may be one to avoid if you’re looking for close mentorship and guided career shadowing. On the other hand if you prefer a more independently lead experience, this may be a great fit for you.

Like all senior projects and internships at the end of the year seniors must create a presentation to share on presentation day. Scarlato did just that with her MidState internship, and received a perfect score for all of her hard work, determination, and well thought out presentation.

“I presented my internship using a poster board, so I took photos at the hospital of things we were allowed to take pictures of like us doing specific tasks, and I put those pictures on the board. I also talked about my obstacles, challenges, things I did well, things I didn’t do well, and explained the internship itself. I then created a slideshow and I embedded videos of things in the past that I’ve watched related to nursing and certain things like that. From this, I was able to talk about my internship without looking at anything, and building off my current knowledge,” explained Scarlato.

Juniors take notes again, because this is a perfect example of how to pass your senior capstone with flying colors, especially for those interested in a nursing career.

In all, Scarlato is a prime example of doing an internship which serves as a bridge between academic learning and real-world application, providing invaluable life lessons and professional skills.