Jobs & Employment
Job Opportunities
Various types of jobs can help you gain valuable transferrable skills for the nursing profession. Some non-healthcare-related jobs include customer service representative, jobs in retail or hospitality, teaching or tutoring, administrative or office roles, research assistants, and more.
While healthcare job experience is not required for pre-nursing students or nursing students, there are various job titles that can provide exposure to the healthcare field without any prior healthcare experience required. Some healthcare-related jobs include patient care assistant, medical scribe, pharmacy technician, home health aide, caregiver, nursing technician, phlebotomist, dietary aide, and more.
Healthcare Training & Certifications
|
Title |
Description |
Resources |
|---|---|---|
|
Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) |
Certified Nursing Assistants (CNA) work under the supervision of a Registered Nurse (RN) or Licensed Practical Nurse (LPN) to give personal, hands-on care to patients, residents, or clients. CNA's provides assistance with taking vitals and essential daily tasks such as dressing, eating, toileting, and personal hygiene. |
|
|
Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) |
Emergency Medical Technicians provide basic emergency medical care and transportation for critical and emergent patients who access the emergency medical system. EMT's perform interventions with the basic equipment typically found on an ambulance, and serve as a link from the scene to the local emergency health care system. |
|
|
Medical Scribe |
Medical Scribes work one-on-one with healthcare providers by documenting patient care in real-time, at the bedside, through the use of the electronic medical record. |
|
|
Pharmacy Technician |
Under pharmacist supervision, pharmacy technicians supply medicines to patients, assemble medicines for prescriptions, and provide information to patients and other healthcare professionals. Pharmacy technicians must be certified according to state guidelines. Many pharmacies will hire technicians and provide hands-on training to prepare for the certification exam. Some examples of local pharmacies that hire Grand Valley students include Family Fare, Walgreens, CVS, and Meijer. |
|
|
Phlebotomist |
Phlebotomists draw and prepare blood for medical testing, transfusions or donation. Training for the field varies. It should include classroom instruction plus “X” amount of clinical hours; however, not all programs offer clinical hours. Students interested in this work should research their options and select a program that meets their needs. Note: Most hospitals prefer candidates with certification but will consider applicants without (and will train) |