Help Speaking at Career Day

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I am speaking to the local highschool for career day about hospital nursing. I work in a level 3 Neonatal Intensive Care Nursery. What can I do to recruit and interest these teenages into a career in nursing? WHat should I talk about. My experiences? The different fields of nursing? THere is so much I don't know where to begin, I have 25 mins. to speak. I can use power point or anything I need to provide the presentation. Please HElp!

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I don't think your focus should be on recruiting people into NICU. What I mean is, don't persuade people to come into that area of nursing. Instead, educate them about what you do, and inform them that it's important that they decide if it's a good fit or not. Encourage them to try different areas of nursing. Give the positives and benefits of what you do.

I guess my main point is, tell them to thoroughly educate themselves on different areas of nursing, and make sure they know the reasons why they want to go into a particular area, and if it fits their interests.

I just had another thought, and you might want to start with this: talk to them about what it's like to be a nurse, and then talk about what it's like to be a nurse in the NICU.

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I did a career day at a middle school, and I really enjoyed doing it. I work in a NICU also, but i focused on nursing in general and basically what a nurse needs to know and discussed nursing duties. I also brought some "props" with me and took my stethoscope so students could listen to each other and I took some syringes and showed them how they would administer an IM medication...that got their attention let me tell you! They were all interacting and asking questions and wanting to volunteer. Lots of them wanted to know about babies born to drug users, which I thought was a little strange, but all in all, I really enjoyed doing it. My advice is to bring some "props" with you if you can, get them to interact, not just sit there and listen, and it will end up being fun for them and you.

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I've done the career day at an elementary school for several years so I think it depends on the age of the group. For high school I try to emphasize that, as a nurse, you will never be out of work. I also tell them that once they get their basic nursing license they can work anywhere. If they get tired of one specialty they get a little extra training and work in a different specialty. I also talk about how to get into nursing school and that there are scholarships available to help.

You can get posters and pamphlets from Johnson & Johnson's website devoted to nurse recruitment. All the stuff is FREE!

http://www.discovernursing.com/

Hope this helps--Good Luck!:wink2:

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Specializes in ED, ICU, PACU.

I had the same idea about Johnson & Johnson for you; but, I found it through another website:

http://www.jnj.com/our_company/advertising/discover_nursing/

Good Luck

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Specializes in Hospice, Critical Care.

I was going to post the Johnson & Johnson site, too, lol.

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Thanks A Bunch. I already ordered Bunches!!! THis is going to be great!:chuckle

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