This article shares the experience and insight gained from a mid-career policy internship offered through the National Academy of Social Insurance. The author is a nursing doctoral student who interned on veterans’ long-term care projects with the Health Care Team at the Government Accountability Office in Washington, D.C. As the average age of nurses continues to rise and society faces nursing shortages, new opportunities and solutions must be considered to keep aging nurses in the workforce. A mid-career internship is a very real option that will benefit health policy organizations, the nursing community, and aging nurses.
Buerhaus, P. I., Staiger, D. O., & Auerbach, D. I. (2000). Policy responses to an aging registered nurse workforce. Nursing Economics, 18(6), 278-284.
2.
GAO: Serving the Congress and the nation. Fiscal 2003. Performance and accountability highlights. (2004). Washington, DC: U.S. General Accounting Office.
3.
National Academy of Social Insurance Mission Statement. (2004). Retrieved August 20, 2004, from http://www.nasi.org/info-url_nocat2708/info-url_nocat_show.htm?doc_id=48363
4.
Projected supply, demand, and shortages of registered nurses: 2000-2020. (2002). Rockville, MD: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Health Resources and Services Administration, Bureau of Health Professions, National Center for Health Workforce Analysis.
5.
Spratley, E., Johnson, A., Sochalski, J., Fritz, M., & Spencer, W. (2002). The registered nurse population: Findings from the 2000 National Sample Survey of Registered Nurses. Rockville, MD: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Health Resources and Service Administration, Bureau of Health Professions, Division of Nursing.
6.
Sweitzer, H. F., & King, M. A. (2004). The successful internship (2nd ed.). Belmont, CA: Brooks/Cole.
