From Young Age, Chicago Nurse President Thrives In Health Care
Monster's NursingLink breaks down the top 9 skills to be an effective nurse. Those skills include excellent communication skills, stable emotions, empathy, flexibility and being detail oriented. But one skill that's missing from the rundown happens to be one that Beth Brooks, President of Resurrection University, emphasizes aspiring nurses become more savvy at.
"It's incredibly important that you can demonstrate your leadership skills," said Brooks. "Whether you do that in your resume, in the interview, or in a professional portfolio, you have to be able to demonstrate that you know how to lead."
The course that stood out to Brooks during her own college years was in leadership and management.
"Anything on the business side is nice coursework to add to the clinical coursework you receive at the baccalaureate level," said Brooks, who has 30 years of nursing experience. "It's really important for nurses to understand the business of heath care [with a] finance class, business systems class, economics or health care economics."
Brooks completed her Bachelor's of Science in Nursing from Valparaiso University, a Master's of Science from Northwestern University in Evanston and a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Nursing Science at the University of Illinois at the Chicago College of Nursing.
Instead of the terrible two stages most kids have, she was setting career goals by getting all dressed up as a nurse for Halloween. Years later, she put on the real outfit.
She was a clinical nurse for four years, in nurse leadership roles for approximately 10 years and is now celebrating her fifth year as President. She also worked in the marketing world as a Client Director for Bentley, Barnes & Lynn and as a senior partner for JWT Inside agency's health care practice team.
"I have a unique ability to sort of translate complex health care concepts and ideas so that folks in advertising can work their magic and create interesting and fun advertising."
But no matter the platform she's working in, one of the highlights of her day is being able to successfully guide other nurses.
"It's very rewarding to see students thrive in the work force, then graduate. You see them after they're working, and they're making a tremendous impact on the world. A culture that relies on really great nurses creates great outcomes for the patients."
Shamontiel L. Vaughn is a professional journalist who has work featured in AXS, Yahoo!, Chicago Defender and Chicago Tribune. She's been an Examiner since 2009 and currently writes about 10 categories on Examiner.com.
