By TAYLOR MORRIS
Student Reporter
Every year Northwestern’s nursing students give back to the community by showcasing what they’ve learned in school.
The nursing program has always had a large component of community service. Each semester the nursing students have to complete a total of four community service hours for their clinical courses on all of Northwestern’s campuses in Alva, Enid, Ponca and Woodward. For example, specifically for the juniors in their Adult Health II course and in their family course they must attempt to do something that encompasses their knowledge of medical and surgical nursing and also taking care of adults.
With this particular community service nursing students really get the opportunity to choose what type of service they would like to do as long as it is in the confines of their instructors’ requirements. Some have chosen to go to nursing homes around Alva to volunteer their time and knowledge and others not too long ago actually chose to hold a vital signs booth in the Student Center where students could get their vitals checked for free. According to student Edem Attor, who had her vitals checked by a Northwestern nursing student, “ I think that it was really good and it helped me know where I was health-wise.”
Juniors in their family course and seniors in their community course will actually be having a Family Health Fair 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Friday on the Northwestern’s Enid Campus. A group of two or three will work together to make an informative booth that ranges over various medical topics. Some of the topics are skin cancer prevention, contraception and even sudden infant death syndrome. There will also be interactive things such as checking of vitals, blood sugar and many other things that tie into their nursing skills as well.
This community service is beneficial to Northwestern’s nursing students because it shows them how important it is to be involved in their community. According to Leslie Collins, assistant chair in the Division of Nursing, “We want to show them that you can be a leader in your community and you can help your community by doing the things that you’ve learned in nursing school. Nursing is obviously a profession that really gives a lot to the community. We take care of patients and we never want to lose that aspect of it. We want them to see that they need to branch out and be there for what the community needs too.”
When the nursing students have fully completed their community service they are given an assignment to reflect on their overall experience. They turn in what they have learned from volunteering their time to the community, what it was that they experienced firsthand and how they feel they have benefited the community overall.
With the help of Haley Smith, the university relations specialist here on campus, the nursing programs community service is really receiving some PR. According to Collins, “This is actually the first year that anybody has really known what the nursing students were doing, so that is really exciting.”