Nurse Extern Program Cultivates Future Talent

This article first appeared in the 2025 Annual Update >

Vail Health’s Nurse Extern Program is an eight-week summer externship that gives nursing students an immersive clinical experience. Launched in 2023, the program fosters a culture of mentorship at Vail Health, enhancing collaboration between nursing staff and students, while also strengthening recruitment of nurses prepared to serve in mountain communities.

Sally Veitch’s founding gift helped establish the program. For Sally, supporting this externship continues a legacy of giving back instilled by her parents, Harold and Mary Louise Shaw. Their decades of generosity included the transformative gift that built the Shaw Cancer Center, cementing Vail Health as a regional destination for cancer care. She has carried on their spirit by investing in the people and initiatives that will help define the future of care.

In 2025, Vail Health welcomed two externs, one from Colby-Sawyer College in New Hampshire and the other from Colorado Mountain College (CMC). The CMC student plans to apply for a position after graduation. The externs gained hands-on experience in The Borgen Family Emergency Department and Trauma Center, assisting with patient care and observing the team’s coordinated responses to urgent situations. They also shadowed nurses in other units at Vail Health Hospital and the Precourt Healing Center.

Thanks to the generosity of Sally and other benefactors, the program will expand to eight externs in 2026. “I’m optimistic about the program’s future and see it playing a vital role in developing the next generation of nurses at Vail Health,” said Sally. “I’m proud to support the growth of this program through my family’s foundation.”