By Ashley Strehl
Editor-in-chief
Annually, the NWOSU nursing students enrolled in the course, “OB and peds. nursing care of the family” get the opportunity to practice pediatric care on children of the NWOSU staff and Alva community.
Assistant professor of nursing, Dr. Jennifer Mahieu, teaches the class and knows the value in working with children in the medical field. “Children are special and unique human beings,” Mahieu said, “and for them to feel safe we must learn how to communicate with them therapeutically and if we don’t know how to communicate with the children while they’re well it’s not gonna work when they’re sick.”
Students from the Alva, Enid,and Woodward campuses hosted the event and each child gained the attention of at least six nursing students at each checkup station.
The stations focused on areas ranging from height and weight to neurological assessments. The students have been preparing for the assesments since school started last week.
Tiana Young-Mauchly is a junior nursing major who hopes to be an RN after graduation found this experience quite helpful. “This was so much fun,” Mauchly said, “as a nurse, you’re going to be with a wide variety of ages, and knowing about pediatrics is just as important as adult-care.”
The students used this to prepare for their clinical and their visit to childerens hospital later this semester.