UAMS Recruiters Visit Nursing Program

Chief Nursing Officer Trenda Ray stands behind podium speaking.National Park College (NPC) hosted a recruitment event for the University of Arkansas Medical Sciences (UAMS) earlier this week. 60 Registered Nurse (RN) students, 30 Practical Nurse (PN) students, and seven faculty members listened to RN recruiter Susan Erickson, and Trenda Ray, Chief Nursing Officer (CNO) of UAMS discuss benefits, orientation process, nursing units hiring new grads, the preceptor program, tuition discounts to obtain BSN, and general recruiting information.

“Trenda graduated from Garland County Community College in 1993 with her Associate Degree in Nursing and continued her education until she obtained her Ph.D. For the CNO of a prestigious hospital in Arkansas, UAMS, to come and recruit our students was exciting. For the students to see someone that graduated from the same program that they will and has achieved what she has is motivation for students to achieve their goal. For the CNO to come and recruit students is not common and coming from Little Rock is impressive, it showed the students how important they are to nursing,” said nursing faculty Tina Ennis.

“As a current employee of UAMS for almost 10 years, it was very inspiring to see Trenda here speaking to all of our students. Hearing the information that Trenda and Susan shared was exciting and motivating. Knowing that UAMS is the only Level 1 trauma center in the state and also a teaching facility makes this visit even more special. It is an amazing place to work and be a part of. Our new nurses need to know that they are not limited to Hot Springs. There are endless opportunities out there and UAMS would be an amazing opportunity for any of them as new grads," said Reagan Mitchell, nursing faculty.