By Bobby Shuttleworth
At Calhoun Community College, nursing students are looking forward to the day they get their certification, degree and begin in the work force. While some will end up in a traditional role, others may look forward to adventure.
Brian Soloman is ready to get into a career and be with his children.
"I would like to go on to possibly UAH and consider even pursuing a nurse practitioner," said Soloman.
Takicha Barrett said her goals revolve around the very young.
"My plan is to successfully obtain a job, hopefully in the pediatrics department. I love kids," she said.
Soloman said he's heard of exotic locations, but he wants to stay home with his children. He said those locations are everywhere.
"...On oil rigs, people that are offshore. And there's even contractors that are in the Middle East or in the theatre in Afghanistan and that were in Iraq; some of the companies have also hired out nurses," he said.
Bret McGill is the Dean of the Health Sciences Division at Calhoun Community College. He said the options are almost limitless.
"A couple of jobs that come to mind, one is a school nurse and just about every school has an LPN or an RN that works to take care of children and administer medications," said McGill.
One of the areas people may not be familiar with is in the industrial setting.
Candy Fall is an occupational nurse at BP. She's worked at several industries before honing her skills here with a focus on wellness. She writes articles for the corporate newsletter, an internal TV station, and much more.
"This particular plant, I'm responsible for medical surveillance for each employee that's here," Fall said.
She said BP is big into wellness programs to keep their employees healthy, like flu shots and more.
"We have a fitness center reimbursement program. We have fruit of the day, where we have fruit delivered to the plant three times a week and our employees and our contract employees can have a piece of fruit to keep them from going to the vending machines," she added.
The program at Calhoun is giving nurses an opportunity to pursue a rewarding job, while helping to keep employees healthy.
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