Taking to school aged kids about nursing

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Any suggestions... My preschool 3-4 year old son's class is having a Health Care month and they asked any parenet who work in health care to come in and talk to the kids... Should be easy, but I cant think of too much age appropriate things to tell them. I work in LTC and sometimes, I cant even explain to my self what I really do:eek: every day... any suggestions??

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I did this for my then-4th graders class. I brought in hats, shoe covers, masks, gloves, my stethascope (cleaned of course) tongue blades, syringes and let the kids touch and play with them. I generalized about some of the different types of nurses and what we do. It was a lot of fun! Ask them what they think a nurse does, some of the answers may amuse you. Ask them if they know anyone who is a nurse or have had a nurse take care of them. With 3-4 year olds you probably won't have to do too much because of their super short attention span.

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Originally posted by kc ccurn

I did this for my then-4th graders class. I brought in hats, shoe covers, masks, gloves, my stethascope (cleaned of course) tongue blades, syringes and let the kids touch and play with them. I generalized about some of the different types of nurses and what we do. It was a lot of fun! Ask them what they think a nurse does, some of the answers may amuse you. Ask them if they know anyone who is a nurse or have had a nurse take care of them. With 3-4 year olds you probably won't have to do too much because of their super short attention span.

Great idea kc, but with 4th graders there still what 9-10 y/o. 3-4 y/o that was hitting below the belt getting you involved it that age group. I think many of the same things kc tried will work equally as well with your youngsters. Make a couple play sick while you take there temps...And I always got a some cherry sucker when I went to the Dr at that age!

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Cherry suckers work at any age:chuckle

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in high school i was certified through red cross to teach handwashing to pre-school - 3rd grade. (scrubby bear)

we taught them that they needed to use soap and wash not only the palms (like most kids do) but also the back of the hand and fingers.

pretty much they do have a short attension span, but it was fun, and they really are interested in learning new things and participating.

one thing is to ask simple questions like...

do you know what a nurse does? or have you ever seen a nurse before...you'll LOVE the answers you get!

and short demonstrations, if you can...we did "pretend" hand washing just to show the technique!

good luck and have fun with the kiddo's!

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Thanks for the advice. Hopefully some other parents will respond. I'm not sure how long I will have, but if worst comes to worst.. they can play with the stethascope (my kids love to listen to their "beat heart") or I can teach hand washing..:p

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I am the breakthrough to nursing director in my school chapter of our student nurses assoc. I am in charge of recruitment and retaing new members and also community out reach in which we talk about nursing. I found that Discovernursing.com offers many free items to help. They have FREE coloring books (can also be read like a story book) and there is no limit to how many you order. Also, there are pins....which the kids find fun.

Below i will try to put a link.

Good luck,

Pearl

http://www.discovernursing.com/prod_video.asp

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Nursepearl...thank you! I just ordered a poster and some coloring books for the kids. I'm sure even if they don't listen to what I said or even care... they might pick up something in the coloring books.

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If you have time you can call the poison control in your area and see if they will give you some of those free stickers that go on the phone. This would be a great thing to send home with them.

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