Think of a career in nursing and most think of a role in a hospital setting or working with Public Health. The truth is that careers in nursing are wildly diverse. With Ontario’s healthcare system seeing an increased need for more nurses while still recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic, nursing students have more options than ever – and they’re happy for it.

Nursing students like Emily Smith, a Lady Eaton College student, recently attended the Trent-Fleming Nursing Students’ Association Career Fair and took advantage of opportunities to learn from industry professionals just how many options are available in nursing.

“A big thing I took away from the career fair is that it does not matter where you start, nursing can take you anywhere,” says Emily. “The career fair better prepared me for my future as it had allowed me to talk to different recruiters from all over Ontario and Canada. Having this opportunity really opened my eyes to what is out there.”

Now in its second year, the Trent-Fleming Nursing Students’ Association Career Fair was a great success, with over 250 students and employers in attendance.

It was encouraging to see a large turnout, says Connor Kucharic, an Otonabee College student in the Nursing program and president of the Trent-Fleming Nursing Students’ Association. “Last year's event was quite successful and so we decided to go above and beyond this year with a much larger scale event.”

This year, the event featured 36 agencies from across Canada – all looking to hire nursing students. While the majority of attendees were students from Trent University the career fair was open to all Ontario and Quebec post-secondary institutes – with registrations from students at McGill University, York University, Ontario Tech University, Fleming College.

A flexible career plan that can take you anywhere

One of the biggest attractions to the event was the keynote speaker – researcher and co-founder of Nursing the Future (NTF), Dr. Judy Boychuk Duchsher.

Dr. Duchsher brought a keynote message that encouraged new grad nurses – telling them that they are in the driving seat and have ample opportunities for different employment paths that nursing students did not have in the past. A message heard loud and clear by Catharine Parr Traill College student, Lisa Leonard.

“My biggest takeaway from the career fair is that nursing as a profession is extremely diverse and in this market of staff shortages, our opportunities are limitless and there is a great deal of freedom to move beyond the traditional hospital nurse role into areas such as community nursing, public health nursing, management, education, informatics, graduate studies and so much more.”

Lisa explained that knowing this means that she will be able to change her career trajectory in the future and does not have to feel like there’s only one path for the rest of her career. As a mature student, Lisa discovered she is further advantaged to move into advanced roles quicker.

“The career fair provided opportunities to engage with new and seasoned nurses working in various hospital and community settings, management, education, and graduate studies, as well as recruiters, and has helped me start to develop a flexible plan for my career that includes exploring the world while I take my time to find my niche as a nurse.”

Learn more about the Trent-Fleming School of Nursing.