By ASHLEY STREHL
Feature Editor
The NWOSU Nursing students are learning about Pediatric Nursing in the Nursing Care of the Family course.
All students spent the day talking about the expectations for their pediatric clinicals they will be participating in this spring throughout a variety of experiences to learn about the normal growth and development of a child.
Children of the Alva Community visited Northwestern to receive a short check up by the nursing students. The students performed assessments on the children ranging from musculoskeletal, neurological, to gathering height, weight, and vital signs.
Each assessment had its own station and each “pediatric patient” visited all the stations in order to get a full check up from the student nurses. “The students worked fabulously with the children and I am very excited to see how they perform in their clinical rotations this semester,” said Dr. Jennifer Mahieu, Assistant Professor of Nursing and coordinator of the course.
The kids came in a bit shy that day, so they set up an icebreaker station, where they were able to color, do puzzles and get to know the nurses. This also gave the student nurses a chance to interact with the children, as they will have to nurse a lot of children in their future carriers.
There were 28 second semester Junior nursing students present from the Alva, Enid, Woodward, and Ponca City campuses. There were also 10 elementary students ranging from ages 2-11, present from Alva Public schools, and their names are Logan Bays, Grady Mahieu, Brooklyn Zimmerman, Parker Grimsley, Kapri & Emry Like, Trenton & Bailey Clepper, and Kendall & Kade Collins. “The experience was very enlightening for me to stand back and watch the students interact with the children. Many times students are hesitant with pediatric nursing, but I am proud to say they did a remarkable job,” Dr. Mahieu.
Ten children participated in the growth and development assessments on Tuesday.