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Contact: Liz Carroll
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E-mail: carroll@gcc.mass.edu

Media contact: Liz Carroll
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Release date: April 25, 2005

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Student nurses serve while learning

You can't be a great nurse without caring about people and your community. So right from the start, GCC nursing students learn that service is an integral part of their vocation. From their first semester, they're staffing blood pressure clinics, information tables, health screenings and blood drives. By their last semester, they're organizing public events such as health fairs and flu clinics, or completing independent projects that meet a need they have perceived in the community. It's called "service learning,” and at a time when public funds are in short supply, it represents a happy conjunction of college and community.

"It fits into our curriculum,” says Jean Simmons, Professor, A.D. Nursing Program, "because students use their time and what they're learning about themselves, their profession and the community that they serve to become a better nurse. They perform a service that's related to what they're studying.”

Service learning is recognized as a top priority within the general college framework, and not just for nursing students. "Students will become lifelong members of the GCC community,” according to the Strategic Planning Retreat conducted last September. But the GCC nursing department sets the benchmark for service learning with a curriculum designed in such a way that the students' service experience builds with each semester. First-semester students are recruited by second-year students to participate in established projects such as clinics and health fairs that they, in turn, will one day organize themselves. By the spring semester of their second year, students are encouraged to create an independent project that addresses a health need in their own community.

Recently, second-year nursing student Melissa Bednarski of Greenfield coordinated a clinic to conduct health screenings on students at Four Rivers Charter School, under the supervision of School Nurse Judy Wolter, R.N., M.S.N., who is herself a graduate of Greenfield Community College. "I really enjoyed working with that age group,” says Bednarski. "It's an interesting age group because there were a lot of girls who were very self-conscious about getting their weights done and they were worried about whether it was going to be shared with anybody, that sort of thing. (It's not.) They're big on body image and fitting in right now.”

If asked, Bednarski supplied students with information about where they stood on statistical charts, and with nutritional information. "Obesity's a big issue for children,” she says. Bednarski and her fellow student nurses used special equipment to conduct hearing and vision tests. "A lot of children don't have annual eye and ear exams, so these screenings can catch a potential problem. We fill out the data.”

"They were a wonderful help!” says Wolter. "Without them, it would have taken me most of the semester, taking a couple of students out of class every day, to complete these screenings. With the student nurses here, we were able to ‘mass produce' the results.”

After interpreting the data recorded by the student nurses, Wolter discovered that several students needed professional evaluation. "That's the purpose of the screenings. There are kids who don't see the board, but they don't know that they're seeing differently than other kids, or who come in frequently for headaches and it's actually their vision that needs compensation.”

Not only are student nurses out in the community, but they're performing a service related to what they are studying. At Tapestry Health, GCC student nurses currently in a hospital maternity rotation assisted the clinicians of the Women's Health Services with OB-GYN screenings. "The students are great,” says Ann Hazen, Health Services Manager. "They're eager to learn, and it's an exposure to potential career paths such as becoming a nurse practitioner or physician's assistant with OB-GYN training.”

At the Montague Senior Center Spring Health Fair on April 14th, GCC student nurses enjoyed the opportunity to discuss health topics with the elder community.

"They're fun to be around and they're always receptive to information,” says Erica Eskra of Brattleboro, a second-year nursing student who helped organize the event by lining up health care professionals such as a dermatologist, dental hygienist, and ophthalmologist, publicizing it in the community, and setting it up. Eskra has also done blood pressure clinics and administered flu shots as service learning activities. "You get to see the different types of people and what their health needs are,” says Eskra, "and the resources that are available to them, or not available.” Eskra says she has noticed that there are not many services directed toward males, like new father groups. "So maybe there's a need there.”

First-year nursing student Valerie Telega of Deerfield, assisting at the Spring Health Fair, recalls one of her first service learning projects, taking blood pressures for the participants of a cardiac rehabilitation class at the YMCA in Greenfield. "It gave us hands-on experience taking blood pressures, which is an important part of our job,” says Telega. "So the more practice we can get, the better. I think it also helped the people who were taking the class. They need continuous blood pressure monitoring to make sure that they're staying healthy. So it benefited both of us.”

And that's the whole point, according to Simmons: "The goal of service learning is that the student and the community benefit equally from the experience. They're doing more than just observing!”

School Nurse Judy Wolter foresees expanded service learning opportunities at Four Rivers Charter School. "I think the school is very receptive to doing it again,” says Wolter, "not only with the nursing students, but perhaps other kinds of collaborations with GCC, because we're neighbors.”