Recently, AUHS was proud to host an employer panel featuring some of the top medical professionals in the area who know what it takes to succeed in the medical field. This panel provided an excellent opportunity for our students to gain valuable insights about current hiring trends in the medical field as well as strategies that can be used to maximize the odds of post-graduation success.

The entire event was full of incredibly useful wisdom and insights, and we wanted to take the time now to summarize some of the top takeaways from this informative event.

• Succeeding as a Nurse is About Finding Your Passion – Many do not realize the wide variety of career options that having a degree in nursing opens up. In many ways, succeeding as a nurse is all about finding the path that you are most passionate about and pursuing it to the best of your abilities. As Haley Mehren of DaVita said, “I really think it’s important for you as students to really reflect on what do I really like and how can I find a path for that?…really kind of sit back and observe at this point in time, and figure out what is speaking to you, and what you’re passionate about, and what you’re excited about, and what’s going to get you out of bed in the morning, and there’s a path for that in nursing. I promise you.”

• Interpersonal Skills are Important – Amid all of the terminology and technical skills that nurses must learn, the value that employers place on a nurse’s interpersonal skills is often overlooked. When asked what quality the most successful nurses he hired possess, Michael Taguiam – a home health and hospice staffer – said, “What we look for is people that can defuse a situation. People that are smart on their feet and quick to think about what to say to their family.” Esperanza Sanchez of Kindred also added, “Be yourself going in there and be proud of what you accomplished, and just be natural. Be transparent. You cannot promise someone that you can do things that you cannot. Just be yourself.’

• Learn About Your Potential Employer – Doing your research and fully understanding the job you are applying for is going to yield far better results than applying for positions at random. Deborah Collins – who works at the Long Beach Department of Health and Human Services – said, “Learn about the position that you’re applying to. Learn if this is really something that you really think you’re going to be able to do. Do your research.” Cynthia Beja from Kindred also talked about the importance knowing about the position you are applying for, saying, “And if you’re going to apply in surgery, and you’re going to apply in OR, and also apply rehab, that just tells us that you’re not quite certain what you’re doing and you’re just desperate enough to find any place to go.”

• Public Health is an Overlooked yet Rewarding Option – If you are in search of a career that will enable you to give back to your community and help those who need help the most, a career in public health is a highly rewarding option to consider. Pamela Bright – who works as an administrator in public health – said, “Public health is a great job to have if you want to give back to your community. I know I’ve done private industries and yes, you may get paid a more from a private industry, but I will definitely put it out there. Public health is very, very rewarding. We do a lot of things that other organizations don’t do.”

We are very thankful to all of the panelists who attended our employer panel and are thrilled with the valuable insight that they were able to offer to our students on the verge of beginning their professional careers. From start to finish, this event was a huge success, and we hope that those who attended will be able to put the information they learned to great use in the coming years.