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Career advancement options in health care await nursing grads

“We hire for the fit,” said Jean Adkins, senior human resources consultant for Good Samaritan Hospital. “We can teach anybody how to stick an IV, but we can’t teach them to be compassionate and sincere for what they do. This is what we look for. We have people walking in the door with 20 years experience, but they don’t have the passion. Truly, truly, this hospital is probably the most caring environment you can go into. If you hire for the passion and make sure it’s a good fit, everything falls into place.”

While Adkins admits the hospital prefers recruiting nurses who are tenured, it understands the trends occurring nationally and locally that continue to shape the nursing work force. The mean age for nurses nationwide is about 50 years which indicates a sizeable number are planning to leave in the near-term. Accordingly, Good Samaritan and other health-care organizations are preparing to fill the void during the next 10 to 15 years.

But the industry’s bustling growth fed by new facilities and new programs accounts for most of the emerging nursing opportunities.

“Right now, our demand for new grads is low, but that could change next week,” Adkins said. “We have a lot of things happening and the opportunity to grow and move up occurring. It opens up other slots.”

The combination of expanding health-care services and nurses transitioning into new, more advanced specialties are creating demands at the lower levels. Nurses, for instance, are electing to switch from patient care to case management jobs or positions involving computer informatics or online charting. As employees of the Premier Health Partners group, nurses can transfer to other member hospitals and dialysis centers in the area and their years of service follows them.

To maintain an adequate skills base, Good Samaritan’s strategy is to grow its own talent. It operates the Center for Nursing Excellence and offers an onsite bachelor’s program as well as tuition reimbursement for employees pursuing bachelor and master degrees.

Adkins advises aspiring graduates, “You don’t become a nurse in a year. It’s a continual process. Continuing education is important in order to keep up-to-date on everything.”