Elementary teachers and nursing students work together to provide creative and innovative health topics to 2nd, 3rd, and 4th graders. Service learning became a part of the Nursing III course about four years ago when the instructor, Paula Reams, taught health in her own child s classroom to help out the teacher. This gave Paula the idea of having student nurses provide health teaching after other teachers in the school asked for help with health topics in their classrooms. Student nurses started teaching many different topics of health in the classrooms, including germs, first aid, body systems, and nutrition. In the fourth grade, teachers appreciate the nursing students teaching about the food pyramid right before the 4th grade proficiency test.
Second graders learn about first aid before heading into the summer months.
This experience gave the student confidence in her own knowledge while at the same time providing pertinent information for safe care to the teacher and her students. Evaluations from both nursing students and the schoolteachers have been very positive. Students like the experience because they see well children instead of only ill children with multiple problems. On the other hand, teachers love having the student nurses who have more knowledge of health, who are creative with teaching strategies and who are new faces to their students. Student nurses also learn more about growth and development, teaching-learning principles, basic first aid and health topics.