Michelle Branam

I grew up watching my mom and my sister, who were both nurses, and I learned from that family history. Seeing how much my mom loved her job and how much people loved her is what started me on this path. I followed in my mom and my sister's footsteps, and after 15 years, I can say I still love my job and still love coming to work every day. I love working with the people, and now as a recruiter on this side of things, I get to bring in the new faces and continue that legacy of being the trusted nurses that we are. As a nursing recruiter for the entire hospital and all of the community offices, I work with management and the executive team to make sure we're in line with our percentages and keeping our turnover rate low. Luckily, we have low turnover here at this hospital, which makes my job easier. I'm the face of the VA, talking with the public, meeting with new applicants and students. We're starting with them in high school now because we want to make sure we're getting them early and helping them find their perfect career. We guide them to nursing schools and offer scholarships to help them pay, giving people opportunities they might not have in their own lives.