Nicole Matura ’18, Danielle Zaleski ’18, Mike Todaro ’18, and Erin Christiano during Mount Saint Mary College Nursing Student Union and Career Center’s New Graduate Nursing Panel.
With an eye on their future careers, Mount Saint Mary College Nursing students got a glimpse of life after graduation at the recent New Graduate Nursing Panel.
The event was sponsored by the Mount’s Nursing Student Union (NSU), Career Center, and School of Nursing.
Panelists included Mount graduates Danielle Zaleski ’18, a registered nurse working at Orange Regional Medical Center and per diem at St Peter’s Hospital in Albany, N.Y.; Nicole Matura ’18, a float nurse for Danbury Hospital, Conn.; and Mike Todaro ’18, a registered nurse working at Hackensack Hospital. It also featured Erin Christiano, a 2018 graduate of Wagner College working at Lenox Hill Hospital, Manhattan. She is also the sister of current Mount Nursing student Shannon Christiano of Yaphank, N.Y.
The panel covered a variety of topics, including job interview preparation, internships and externships, NCLEX (National Council Licensure Examination) preparation, and out-of-state licensing.
The panelists advised attendees to prepare for scenario-based questions for interviews, making sure to have answers ready when you walk in. Panelists also shared some helpful resources in preparing for the NCLEX, such as using Kaplan and Uworld question banks.
Shannon Christiano, Mount Nursing Student Union president, was a primary organizer of the event.
“I’m a senior Nursing student, and I was thinking about where I’m going to work, the transition from student to nurse, and everything else going through every senior Nursing student’s head,” she explained. “This panel is a great way to address this.”
She hopes that the event provided students with some reassurance about life after graduation: “I hope that [the attendees] are a little more confident about passing their NCLEX and I hope that it eased some stress about the job search,” she said.