UK Human Resources hosts recruiting event for nursing graduates

UK Human Resources recently helped graduating and experienced nurses from across the commonwealth and beyond take a major step toward becoming an RN within UK HealthCare.  

Recruiters from UK HR hosted an opportunity for graduating students, recent graduates and experience nurses to interview with hiring leaders from Chandler, Kentucky Children’s, Good Samaritan, the Markey Cancer Center, King’s Daughters, Saint Claire Regional Medical Center and other facilities. Interviews were scheduled based on the interviewee’s career interests, but interviewees also had opportunities to explore areas they may not have previously considered.  

In total, UK HealthCare conducted in-person and virtual interviews with 156 candidates on November 13 and 14, highlighting our commitment to not only enhancing the career paths of emerging nurses but also ensuring the continued excellence of patient care within the Commonwealth of Kentucky and beyond. More than 120 have already accepted job offers at UK HealthCare.  

Associate Vice President of Human Resources at UK HealthCare Fredrick Martin said they continue to tailor these hiring events to meet the needs of those who they hope will become new nurses for UK HealthCare  

“This event is the epitome of meeting people where they are,” Martin said. “So, meeting our new graduates, having this hiring summit close on campus is a great opportunity for them to come out. One of the things we really try to focus on and pick up here is really the candidate experience.” 

Being able to meet with that many departments in a short period of time was an incredible opportunity, students said.  

“It makes it easier to kind of whittle it down. You get everything at once,” said Casey Jones, who will graduate with a nursing degree in December. “I like the way that it's set up, how everything is all here and you can just take your time to interview with whatever service that you wanted to interview with.” 

Abigial Clayton is also graduating in December and already has a contract with UK for a two-year commitment.  

“I am here interviewing with the departments that I’ve been interested in over the course of the last year-and-a-half,” she said. “I am just looking for more than anything a good culture, a manager I feel like I can trust and who will support me as I'm starting to step out and learn a little bit about how to actually be a nurse." 

UK HealthCare managers also praised the event and its organizers. 

“It helps a lot because there's a lot of things to choose from and it's very specialized. The managers get to tell them about the unit and then they get to see, ‘Oh, maybe I'll like this,’” said Kolby Mitchell, assistant manager in the neurology intensive care unit. “We get a lot of UK students obviously, but we've had experienced nurses and travel nurses who want to relocate to UK full-time.” 

UK HR leadership says showing that UK HealthCare stretches beyond Lexington is also important. 

“We do have a number of our students who may want to go back to their local hometown in the rural area or maybe they want to stay here in Lexington,” Martin said. “So, we have them understand that UK is bigger than just Lexington. We have our UK King’s Daughters (in Ashland), we have UK Saint Claire Regional Medical Center (in Morehead). There are tons of opportunities across our system.” 

HR will host another interview event for new graduates and experienced nurses in the spring.