Calvin Senior Nurses Present Poster Session

March 9, 2007 == MEDIA ADVISORY

Summary: Calvin senior nursing students presented the results of their
community health work at a recent poster session.

Full story, including pics, see
http://www.calvin.edu/news/releases/2006-07/nursing-posters.htm

Senior Calvin College nursing students held a 90-minute poster session on
Wednesday, March 7 in the DeVries Hall atrium on campus, a session that
highlighted the nursing program’s ongoing efforts to improve healthcare
access in the Baxter-Madison, Burton Heights and Creston-Belknap neighborhoods
via a Spectrum Healthier Communities grant.

“The primary focus of the program is access to healthcare, access to dental
care, access to medications and to other resources,” says nursing professor
Diane Slager about the community healthcare component of the nursing program.

The student nurses work in groups in the neighborhoods for two six-week stints
during their junior and senior years. They carry out a neighborhood survey with
the area community health worker. They perform blood pressure and blood sugar
screenings from house to house. They do senior health visits. They perform
blood testing of children to screen for lead content. They teach about
healthcare and nutrition in various neighborhood settings. And they answer
questions about a host of health issues.

For the recent poster session the DeVries Hall atrium was festooned with
posters outlining neighborhood demographics and strategies for care and
spotlighting breast cancer, hypertension, lead poisoning, diabetes, asthma and
other issues targeted by the program. Students stood available to answer
questions.

Each neighborhood nursing group also had a special focus. Students stationed
in the Baxter-Madison area participated in a Super Clean, an intensive cleaning
of a house to eliminate lead particles. The student nurses working in the
Creston-Belknap area hosted a health fair at Palmer Elementary School. They
persuaded a local store to donate free bike helmets for the bike safety
component of the fair. And in Burton Heights, students concentrated on
educating about breast cancer and diabetes.

Alysha McFadden, a senior who worked in Burton Heights, says the community
health focus taught her to be culturally sensitive. Those are some of the
values the program is designed to teach, says Slager. “It makes them better
nurses in whatever setting they are led to work in."

Full story, including pics, see
http://www.calvin.edu/news/releases/2006-07/nursing-posters.htm

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Received on Fri Mar 9 12:55:14 2007