Tanner Burks, a University of Arkansas nursing student, was chosen for a prestigious Mayo Clinic externship this summer, one of 111 students chosen from more than 1,000 applicants.

Burks, of Lonoke in central Arkansas, will start the 10-week externship on June 3 in the post-anesthesia care unit at the clinic in Rochester, Minn. The Mayo summer employment program for students was established 47 years ago, making it the most well-established program of its kind in the country.

Burks said he was excited to have the opportunity to hone his skills before graduating in December and entering the work force.

"It's the Mayo Clinic, the mecca of health care," he said. "They are at the top of everything. They have the best nurses."

The department of nursing at Mayo has held Magnet status, the highest level of recognition the American Nurses Credentialing Center gives, since 1997.

Burks will stay in a suite at a local community college with other students coming to Mayo for the program. He will work a 40-hour week Monday through Friday and, while the post-anesthesia care unit will be his home base, he will also have opportunities to visit other units such as intensive care and operating rooms to observe some surgery. Mayo surgeons perform such specialties as heart transplants.

Burks earned a degree in biology from the University of Arkansas in 2010. He went back home after graduating and was unsure what to do with his degree. His mother suggested nursing and he arranged to shadow a nurse at Arkansas Children's Hospital in Little Rock.

"I love science, but like most guys I thought nursing was emptying bedpans and bathing patients," he said. "The experience at Arkansas Children's Hospital blew me away. It's a lot more than that. Critical thinking is vital. You're with the patient 90 percent of the time. A nurse can develop relationships with patients that no other medical professional can."

Burks is interested in pursuing an advanced nursing degree, possibly the Doctor of Nursing Practice that the university's Eleanor Mann School of Nursing will start offering online in the fall. But, he wants to get a couple of years' experience under his belt first.

"I want to work in a cardiac ICU," he said. "The cardiovascular system fascinates me."