Essentia Health Holds Job Fair for Nursing Students at Local Colleges

DULUTH, Minn — If you are college student in a nursing program or a seasoned RN looking for a job, The Garden in Canal Park was the place to be on Wednesday afternoon.

Essentia held its Spring Job Fair focusing on graduating nursing students from local colleges including St. Scholastica, LSC, and Fond Du Lac. Interested attendees were able to come and ask questions of some of Essentia’s nursing staff and HR team in a friendly relaxed environment.

“I have never been to a hiring event. I was a little bit nervous. I was kind of expecting like a job interview type of deal, but it’s been like the opposite. Very, very chill if you will,” said LSC student Chloe Cook.

If job seekers liked what they had to hear, hiring managers were on site to conduct interviews and ready to make verbal job offers to select candidates on the spot.

“It’s a great peace of mind for a student to, you know, have that opportunity lined up. And I think what’s really a great peace of mind that we offer that’s unique is we bring every nurse that joins our organization, every new student into our organization into what’s called a Residency Program, opportunity to come in as a cohort, you know. Learn together, do some research together, build their careers together,” said John Higgins, vice president of talent management at Essentia Health.

Employees in the program are able to explore nursing departments outside of where they were originally hired whether it be in surgery, labor and delivery, the ICU, and others.