nursing as a career, teaching project

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I'm a 1st level nursing student in my 2nd semester. We have to do a teaching project this semester and I am doing mine on Nursing as a Career with a group of girl scouts ages 8-12. I have searched the web and found some interesting and helpful information, but I am still looking for other, more real life stuff. I welcome all kinds of personal stories, learning info, anything at all that will be of any help. Can anyone come up with a better title? I'm not very imaginative! Thanks, Dee Dee :)

Hi DeeDee,

What a task, you should be congratulated! I guess you can go into what a nurse does, the different areas of nursing, etc. but I also think it would be cool if you could have a couple activities for them to do like take blood pressure or listen to a heart beat through a stethoscope, etc. That kind of stuff might keep them more involved and paying better attention.

8-12 year olds might not get the next thing that I am about to say....But.....I said it once and I'll say it again. Kids today are too intent on picking careers that are glamorous or make big $$$$. I have tons of little cousins that all want to be engineers and lawyers because of the $$$. It's not that I think any of them are not smart enough to become engineers or lawyers but they are not looking at any other careers that might be of interest to them and they are denying their natural interests and instincts because all they want to do is make lots of $$$. I just worry that once they graduate and work a couple years in the real world they will realize that they made a mistake and wish they would have been a nurse, a psychologist, a business person, etc.

Let us know how it goes. This sounds like a really interesting project.

Good Luck!

Thanks! I had not thought of letting them listen to a heart beat or take a bp, but I do have an income by profession chart that I intend to use. I will definetly use your ideas.

How about breaking some nurse stereotypes? Show a slide show or overheads of various pictures of nurses in different settings. Talk about the variety of nursing specialties, and even degrees of nursing education (advanced degrees, etc). Let those kids know that a nursing career can be anything from a bedside nurse, to public health, infection control, homecare, school nurse, nurse anesthetist, nursing instructor, nurse practicioner, nurse first assistant, nurse administrator, nurse specialist, informatics, etc. Really try to show them that there is more to this career than just what they see on tv shows. :)

http://www.nursing.uiowa.edu/sites/users/hgood/

PS- A few things I did at elementary schools (health fairs) was glow germs (germ theory/handwashing), and using a doppler and listening to kids heartbeats/pulses. They really seemed to like those.Most infection control nurses will have access to a glow germs kit, and you could borrow the doppler for the day.

Those are pretty good ideas too. I will see what I can come up with. I can get the glow germ stuff, but I might have trouble finding a doppler. Thanks for your help.

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