Nursing students gathered in Brewer-Hegeman Conference Center for a nursing career fair Jan. 28.
Tables lined the walls of the room where various hospitals and medical organizations had set up to discuss what opportunities they offer any prospective nurses and current students.
“A student would work kind of in the aid role along with other nursing duties as you get signed off on them. Of course, it would be depending upon your skill level at that time. And then what we try to do is get you in, learn our systems, get everything going, and then have you prepared for a nursing position once you graduate,” Misty Baker, med surge manager at Ozark Health, said.
Sally Cassell from Ozark Health Employee Services Department said Ozark Health offers a “very competitive salary scale that we look at for all of our positions” as well as “a very lucrative benefits package as far as days off, vacation days and employee benefits and retirement.”
Nursing students participating in the fair had much to say regarding their experiences and the opportunities presented to them by the attending organizations.
Senior Garrison Carroll said, “We’re getting closer to graduation. We’re starting to submit applications right now, we’ve got our resumes with us, so we were all kind of just eager to see what’s out there, see where we want to go, [and] what we want to specialize in.”
Carroll related his experience to a personalized interview with the organizations.
He said he “was trying to find opportunities in there with new grads because it’s kind of hard. They only offer new grads basically what the hospitals need, and so you kind of have to put in your say for what you want specifically. So I was just going around, kind of interviewing them on how they felt about new grads.”
“You can see their values — what they’re looking for — so you can make the best decision about where to apply to,” he said.
Senior Katherine Fitzgerald said, “I was looking at specific hospitals to grab my attention.”
“There are certain hospitals that really stood out to me. I just wanted to look again at those and hear more about them,” she said.
“One hospital is faith-based, so that’s really important to me. So that’s one thing that made it stand out, but also the community at those hospitals and people were always kinder and more centered on the patient than just doing their job and checking all the boxes,” she said.
Senior Sarina Patel said, “I was super interested in UAMS, just going up there and meeting up with them and putting a face to a name that they probably had an application on or received emails from makes it more personal, and they’re more likely to remember you and accept your application.”
Patel also explained a couple of reasons she chose a career in the nursing profession.
“I really enjoyed the interactions that nurses have with patients and I just like to help other people.”