For 2021 Mount Saint Mary Nursing graduates like Sean Leuschner of Carmel, N.Y. and Saraí Bellamy of New Windsor, N.Y., their next career steps were decided before they even walked across the Mount's Commencement stage.
Leuschner received a whopping four job offers in critical care before his last Mount semester ended. Ultimately, Leuschner picked a job with Hartford Hospital, a 938-bed acute care teaching hospital located in Hartford, Conn. in the Level I Neuro/Trauma Intensive Care Unit (ICU). He will start in early August.
"There are many things to look forward to as I begin my career," he explained. "I've heard of Hartford Hospital's astounding reputation in the healthcare industry and I am very excited to work for a company with such an excellent track record and a strong example of leadership."
The time right after graduation is stressful for many new Nursing graduates, Leuschner said, as they are planning to take the National Council Licensure Examination (NCLEX) in the coming weeks.
"By having a job offer already secured, I can 100 percent focus my attention on what's important: passing the NCLEX and preparing to begin my career," he noted.
While Leuschner put in the hard work to finish college on his own, he was supported by dedicated Mount Nursing faculty members.
"The Nursing faculty at MSMC are top notch," Leuschner said. "I was – and am – extremely fortunate to have such supportive professors, advisors, and instructors who encouraged me to pursue critical care and start in a specialty area of Nursing. The Mount faculty genuinely care about their students and want them to succeed. The last year has, of course, been fatiguing on us all, but the entire Mount faculty remained resilient and quickly adapted to their new teaching modalities to continually create meaningful lectures and discussions."
He added that the Mount's Career Center, especially Career Counselor Robin Rosenberg, helped him to land so many successful interviews.
"Without them...I would have likely have never had a job offer," Leuschner said. "From helping build my résumé and using the proper formatting, to helping prepare me for my first interview, they guided me and were an integral resource for my success."
Leuschner said he would miss the friendships he made at the Mount, as well as the college's Nursing faculty.
"Both were absolutely essential in my education and aided me in graduating with my BSN," he noted. "From my first class, Nursing Assessment....to working as a clinical student in the ICU at St. Luke's, my friends and the faculty made it possible for me to graduate. The memories and relationships I created along the way will be something that I will forever hold onto, and I'll make sure to take the skills and lessons they have taught me everywhere I go in my career."
It's a career Leuschner hopes is long and varied. First, he's planning on obtaining his RN license. His long-term plans include graduate school to become a nurse practitioner (NP) in acute care.
Meanwhile, Leuschner's classmate, Bellamy, will begin a year-long Nursing residency with VA Hudson Valley Health Care System in late August. She will be rotating between several VA facilities in multiple nursing specialties and will be responsible for an evidence-based project at the end of the year, based on a nursing practice she believes she can improve.
"I'm looking forward to working with the geriatric population," said Bellamy. "I believe I can make a difference in their care."
Like Leuschner, she credits the Mount with helping her to succeed: "The Mount provided me with professional nursing skills that I can develop more in the specialties I will be working with," she explained. "The resources available on campus helped me prepare my résumé and cover letter."
Mount Nursing students consistently score higher than the state average on the NCLEX-RN test, and they benefit from state-of-the-art simulation labs and learning resources, clinical relationships with dozens of area hospitals, and passionate faculty. Mount-trained nurses have become known locally and beyond for their compassionate and skillful care.