[RNmom08]

I'd like to get our nursing club active again. I've found out that the club at my school has been quite dormant for some time now. I was curious, what are some of the events and activities that other nursing clubs are involved in.

[KellNY]

I'm out of school now, but here's some things we did in mine:

~Participated at local "fairs" doing a project either for extra credit or as part of a class, or just for the experience. IE-Local HS fair we did an AIDS poster and gave out pamphlets we made. Blood pressure screenings at a drug store with a poster and slides about heart problems. Nurse recruitment at career fairs. etc

~Comissioned the Mammogram Van to visit campus once every few months for students, faculty and general community. Participated in getting health histories, pt education, breast cancer facts.

~Fund raising--selling sweat shirts, lanyards, etc with school logo. Used this for bi monthly luncheons (pizza and a salad, etc...good time to get together and plan stuff, gripe, make study groups, etc)

~We'd have a recruiter from a diff local hospital come once every 2 weeks or so. She'd bring us food and drinks, little give aways, and LOTS of info about that hospital (benefits, pay, tuition reimbursement, experience req'd, ratios, hours, etc). These were really great, and hospitals were more than happy to oblige!

~Adopt a family or charity. No, not just around the holidays. Year round. People ALWAYS need food and clothing.

~Participated as a group in various "walks" (Walk for the cure, walk for autism, that kind of thing)

~Sponsor a campus wide blood drive.

~Nursing career fairs (we'd get about 40-60 diff recruiters, they did on spot interviews, giveaways, and lots of info) twice a year.

Also, we made it policy that EVERYONE who was a nursing major was automatically a part of the group. There was no application, no fees or dues, not mandatory meetings, etc. Made it very flexible as a lot of our students already had families, jobs, etc.

Best of luck! It can be a very enriching experience.

[nurse4theplanet]

Our nursing association was very active as well and did many of the same things the poster above mentioned.

Blood pressure screenings, health fairs, blood drives, gave out B-12 shots and flu vaccs at reduced rates to students, etc.

We did loads of fundraisers and community projects, including one to support the troops in Iraq, one after Hurricane Katrina, and an annual food drive for the poor/homeless each Christmas

Membership was open at any time to all nursing students, annual dues were $20, we would meet once a month for lunch and we always had a speaker (nurses from all specialties...travel, CRNA, organ transplant, education, etc./ Nclex review reps/ Hospital Recruiters/ Recruiters from other colleges for advanced degree programs). We had to elect officers for the association and we recognized members with special awards for outstanding service and dedication to the organization.

Each year, we attended the annual state nursing convention for students and competed with other student nurse organizations for community service awards and a scrapbook contest (made and designed by us) that highlighted our program and what our students do above and beyond just attending class and clinical.

The organization also sponsers different events for underclassment...a survival day for entering freshmen where the president(usually a senior student) will speak about the program from a students perspective, to add to what the faculty has to present, and we buy and serve breakfast...and other things like that.

It was a very positive experience and when I first joined, there was little interest in the chapter. But through lots of hard work and promotion, our membership almost tripled by the time I graduated.