UnitedHealth Group offers a variety of career opportunities for nurses

When you decided to become a nurse, you no doubt pictured yourself at the patient's bedside.

If that's where you still picture yourself - great! But if you have a desire to look beyond the traditional nursing role, then you may be interested to know that UnitedHealth Group offers a wide variety of career opportunities for nurses.

Because of UnitedHealth Group's diverse organization - in terms of available services, care options and locations - there are many ways in which nurses can transfer their capabilities from the bedside setting to the business environment, working in management, training, operations, physician services and more.

Nurses have the right skills.
"Management is problem solving and that is what nurses do very well. That's why their skills transfer very nicely into the operations setting," said Jeannine Rivet, RN, MPH, Executive Vice President-UnitedHealth Group. "We have nurses who have moved into sales, various business aspects and into managing large groups of people with clinical skills."

Rivet wants nurses to know that just because they move into the business arena, they are not leaving patient care behind.

"Instead, you get the opportunity to help patients proactively and be in on the ground level of developing programs and services that will make a long-term impact on patients' health and well-being," she said. "We want to attract those who can use their skills in a business environment and still impact quality health care."

Rivet understands the need to remain in the patient care loop. She worked as a registered nurse for several years before entering the health services industry. She has taken on increased responsibilities at UnitedHealth Group over the years due to her willingness to take on new assignments and be open to the company's innovative style of developing people in roles that they may not have considered before.

"If you have the drive and initiative, then career advancement at UnitedHealth Group is unlimited," Rivet said. For example, if a registered nurse is flexible and willing to take on new assignments, he or she can be promoted into many different positions that offer new challenges and rewards.

Michel Daley, RN, and Vice President-OptumHealth, a UnitedHealth Group Specialized Care Services company, has gained increasing responsibilities during her 20 years with the company.

"I looked for ways to leverage my clinical skills with prior experience and I was willing and able to take some chances," she said. "And, because of the dynamic nature of our organization and constant changes in the marketplace, there were and continue to be many opportunities. I look at each one as a building block that led to the next step in my career development."

Are you looking for a new opportunity?
UnitedHealth Group and its businesses employ nurses in both clinical and business settings. Many nurses joined the company after years of providing bedside care and were looking for new career opportunities in health care management.

"Bedside care might no longer be an option for some nurses, so we can offer them an alternative work environment, where they can gain an even broader understanding of the health care industry," said Patricia Kappas-Larson, BSN, RN, and Senior Executive at Evercare, an affiliate of UnitedHealth Group. "Once you're at UnitedHealth Group, you are connected with all kinds of different businesses that offer a wide array of opportunities. We want to develop people in the roles that interest them, to ensure their future success and job satisfaction."

Lisa Lacock, RN, clinical manager for OptumHealth in California, has enjoyed her transition from bedside nurse to care coordinator and now clinical manager.

"As a nurse, you use your critical thinking skills no matter what type of nursing you do. The only difference in a business environment such as ours, is that your assessment skills are fine tuned to identify issues through conversations with the patient, rather than physically seeing the patient," she said. While this is true for telephonic or nurseline triage registered nurses, those working in other parts of the company, such as Evercare and AmeriChoice, do see their patients and manage their care.

Some of the many career options for nurses at UnitedHealth Group include care coordinator, clinical manager, nurseline triage, concurrent review nurse, claims consultant, patient advocate, researcher, network manager, health educator and many more.

"The career prospects at UnitedHealth Group are vast as one considers the number of business segments that make up the organization. Nurses here have the opportunity to affect health care over a broad spectrum and to make a difference in the lives of many people," Daley said.

Benefits abound.
This is just a small sampling of the careers available to nurses at UnitedHealth Group. And besides the opportunity to move into a non-bedside setting, nurses might also be attracted to more favorable hours - most working 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., usually with holidays and weekends off. Employees also benefit from tuition reimbursement, continuing education opportunities, scholarship opportunities and the ability to easily relocate due to the company's locations nationwide.

So, if you're interested in additional opportunities within nursing, either now or in the future, join an organization that can get you on the right path toward your ultimate career goal.