Sharon Hardin

FIRST CAREER:  Factory assembly line worker (13 years)

Education: High School graduate

            Experience: Assembly line worker for printed circuit boards for aircraft (until part of employer’s mass layoff)

SECOND CAREER: Nurse and Nurse Educator

            Education and Experience: Enrolled in nursing school with financial assistance from Pell grants and the PA Department of Education; graduated with a diploma for Registered Nurse.

            After two years of working in a private physician’s office, checking patients’ vital signs relevant to the employer’s ENT (ears, nose and throat) medical specialty, transferred employment to a family practice physician.

            While employed full time and concurrently the mother of children, enrolled in a college program, earning a Bachelor of Science for advanced nursing skills.

            Next employed as a “Bedside Nurse” at the Veterans Hospital in Coatesville, PA where duties included distributing medications to patients, inserting IVs (intravenous tubing), blood transfusions, etc.; after 10 years, transitioned employment duties to “Nursing Infomatics” involving teaching nurses and physicians about electronic medical records. During this time, returned to graduate school to earn a Master’s degree in Nursing Education (sponsored by the Veterans Administration)

COMMUNITY ACTIVITIES (past and present)

            Chairperson, African American Employment Committee at the V.A. Hospital

            Secretary, Coatesville Branch of the N.A.A.C.P.

            Member, Blacks in Government organization (“B.I.G.”)

            Chairperson, Advisory Board for N.A.M.I. (Natl Alliance for Mental Illness)

            Member, Minority Nurse Educators of Chester County, PA.