Glencliff High School Public School students recently learned first-hand about health care roles thanks to a collaboration between the Vanderbilt University School of Nursing and the Oasis Center’s Youth Engagement and Action Program.
“Students often say they want to be a doctor, which is great, but we’ve found they don’t know much about other health care careers,” said Vanessa Lazón, Oasis Center Youth Engagement Specialist, working with these students originally from countries such as Puerto Rico, South Sudan and Canada. “We also want to make them aware of the many different branches to a career in health care by observing how a health care team works.”
The VUSN students developed an hour-long curriculum, as part of their community health course, to engage all of the 12 students in hands-on learning. They involved the high school students (including rising 9th graders coming in from Cameron Middle School) in the process of taking a pulse and blood pressure measurements. They also presented a rapid trauma assessment scenario. Each nursing student played a different role on the health care team – physician, EMT, registered nurse, physical therapist, nurse practitioner, X-Ray tech or respiratory therapist.
“It was like watching an emergency on TV, only we got to be up close,” said high school student Nereida Ortega.
When the group debriefed the scenario, the nursing students provided details on each health care team member role, education required to take on those roles and the best way to progress toward their chosen health care career.
“It was a great learning experience for our nursing students, because it integrated content across all of their courses,” said Cole Powers, DNP, FNP-BC, School of Nursing instructor. “Projects like this expose high school students to careers in health care and hopefully encourage more diversity in health care.
As part of this collaboration with the Oasis Center, VUSN students also taught a different group of students from Cameron College Prep (middle school age) sessions on nutrition, healthy habits, and bullying throughout the school year and then conducted a health survey with the summer program group to assess the high school students’ readiness to improve health behaviors. Additionally, VUSN students addressed issues such as pregnancy and drug use, which may pose barriers to meeting life and career goals.”
“There is no better way to engage these kids than getting out in the community like this,” said Brandon Hill, Oasis Center Youth Engagement Specialist.