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Two years ago, Leah Parker Hagan was working in a coffee shop and about to apply for nursing school. She wanted to find a job that would give her real-life experience, so she turned to the classifieds.

The nursing senior, who will graduate this month, said she replied to a classified ad in The Shorthorn offering a job to a female nursing student to work for a family who has a daughter with several disabilities.

“I thought this would be a good experience, so I thought I would give it a shot,” she said.

Phillip and Emma Bell have hired students for the past seven years to help their daughter Brandy. Emma Bell said they hire students from the Colleges of Nursing and Education and the School of Social Work.

Emma Bell said they hire two or three students, so they can offer flexible schedules. She said the students help the family with doctors’ appointments, and they also travel with the family on vacations.

“We are very picky about who we hire,” she said. “The girls we hire are the best of the best.”

Hagan said she felt an immediate connection with the family when she went to the initial interview. She said she knew through this job she would gain practical experience that would help upon graduation.

She said she worked for the family during the week and helped take Brandy to her doctors’ appointments. Other tasks include helping Brandy with her physical therapy in the pool during the summer.

In addition to her other disabilities Brandy is also non-verbal, something Hagan said would be beneficial for her career. She said when someone is non-verbal they rely on other cues to communicate, and she learned Brandy’s personality, to know how to help.

“With Brandy, when she is working with her physical therapists, she will sigh heavy, like she is saying ‘You’re making me do this again?’” Hagan said.

Some of what she found valuable, over her two years of employment, include learning how to use a mechanical lift, how body mechanics work when moving a patient and communicating with a patient’s caregivers.

“A lot of nursing is interacting with several different people,” she said. “Not only do you interact with the patient and the family but also with different doctors and physical therapists.”

Hagan said nursing students should not limit their scope of jobs to just hospitals. She said there are opportunities out there, like this one, where students can receive valuable experience.

“Look past the hospital as the only place to work,” she said. “Someone who can’t work in a hospital, or doesn’t want to, should broaden their scope about jobs.”

Gladys Maryol, Bachelor of Science in Nursing and Registered Nurse to Bachelor of Science in Nursing program director, said many hospitals are looking for people who have more work experience, and they look at everything in students’ background, even their GPA.

She said students who find a job in a hospital, or outside a hospital, while in school could be preferred to someone who does not work at all.

Nursing students have class clinicals where they work in a hospital and have to complete a certain number of hours to graduate.

Maryol said the clinicals are not considered as experience for employment. She said many students work as technicians in hospitals while in school and once they graduate they are hired by that hospital.

Bell said the students become a part of their family while working in their home. She said they are partial to students of the university, because she and her husband are alumni.

Hagan said she is hopeful that she will find a job after graduation. Hagan is expecting a baby boy in the next few weeks, so for now she will take some time to get to know her new baby.

Bell is currently looking for someone to replace Hagan, since she will be leaving at the end of the week. She said Hagan will be irreplaceable.

“Brandy loves Leah and we love Leah,” she said. “We are going to miss her when she is gone.”