I agree with Curmudgeon and Rapaire and the others who advise to call ahead. And with your studies in nursing, you may want to see if any of your professors have been published locally and can offer advice about publication or health editors.

Every so often I call my local paper to offer information for an article they'll be wanting to run, or call to ask for information (the university library where I work houses the photo archives of the local large newspaper). I don't write for them, I don't have time. They're just people and they're pretty approachable. You might want to call a circulation desk and ask a couple of questions--who is the health editor and when is a good time to call? There are some busy times in the day at a daily paper, and you don't want to get lost in that shuffle.

If you're doing this for credit in school, don't worry about the pay. It's more important to get published than it is to get paid for it right now.

If you're making multiple submissions, then you have a number of options. If you're sending a query then you can make the article a little different for each place that accepts the general concept. If you're sending the complete article, then I'd send out one at a time, or send the full article to one place and query others. Don't write a full new and different article for each submission. Just do the writing for the folks who show interest, and send the full article to the place that show the most promise.

And ignore half-assed ignorant pissant GUESTS ::: .

Go the the Library or Barnes and Noble and get a copy of the Writer's Market and read their information about rights. First North American Rights, Serial Rights, etc. If you want to haggle about something like this, that's the place to find it. If you want to use the article again somewhere, then retain the Serial or reprint rights and sell the First North American Rights. Something that goes in the newspaper isn't going to have a long shelf-life, but if they put it on their online pages then they'll probably ask for those rights also. Again, if the goal is to get published for an assignment, don't worry about this and just write the piece.

Good luck!

Maggie (SRS)