Sharon Eyster, CNHA, FACHCA

During our December meeting, we had the pleasure of video chatting with Sharon Eyster, a director of operations in ACHCA. Ms. Eyster started by talking about ACHCA and all the opportunities that come with it. She stated that the most beneficial part of the club is attending convocation. From her experience, the people she met through ACHCA have become like family and are always there for advice and support when needed. There are scholarship and networking opportunities for students all over the country and students attend at a reduced price. The sessions at convocation consist of current long-term care topics of conversation led by directors, vendors, executives, etc. Students are able to pick and choose which topics they want to listen to at convocation. Ms. Eyster really wanted to emphasize how many opportunities come from attending convocation in the spring.

Ms. Eyster then began to explain her career path. She said she originally wanted to be a nurse and ended up going back to school to be a social worker. Throughout her education, she worked in a nursing home as a nursing assistant and eventually ended up in Children in Youth. From there she got into administrative and then director roles. She also has a background in health law and spends a lot of time focusing on rules and regulations. At her level, she oversees all the administrators in the organization and makes sure the policies and regulations are enforced and adhered to. She explained that her path has helped greatly in her position and she often enjoys interacting with residents in the nursing home.

Additionally, we talked about opportunities other than convocation in order to get more involved in ACHCA. She explained that they are working on putting together career fairs, webinars, any conferences, etc for at least the Pennsylvania chapter. They are looking at this because many students have final exam conflicts with the days of convocation.