What to have nursing students do?

[sergel02, BSN]

I found out I'll be having a BSN student for the first time next month, and I'm wondering what I may show them to help them learn. Most students stay with their school nurse for 12 weeks but I will only do it for a couple. They are in their last semester so they'll be RNs soon.

My goal is to show them what school nursing and public health is like, especially in my state where we have multiple schools, but I know most are never going to become school nurses, especially as new grads, so I'm trying to see what other things I can show them they can apply more universally.

My ideas include:

- Having them run the nurse's office doing triage and first aid, and doing minor procedures like tube feedings (students love hands-on care and working on prioritization)

- Help out with screenings (something they don't do elsewhere)

- Writing a care plan

- Show them how we do IEPs. Some nurses have the BSN students call the parents and walk them through the questions.

- Present at a meeting (meetings are very similar to how rounds in the hospitals worked).

- Show them how we track disease outbreaks

They're going to be RNs soon, so I want them to think independently, but school nursing is such a unique specialty. Some nurses have them do very hands-on care, while others will explain how and why they're doing things, while others just use the students to file paperwork, but the latter seems so boring and not very educational.

Any ideas?

[k1p1ssk, BSN, RN]

That all sounds like an excellent plan! When we have ADN students, they are only in their second semester when they come, but they do a teaching project with at least one grade, though that is an assignment for their pediatric course. But, they research developmentally appropriate teaching and present to a classroom for 10-15 minutes on a health topic - usually things like handwashing, tooth brushing, basic nutrition, etc. 

[arlingtonnurse]

I ask them to make a poster for my bulletin board, considering learning needs and abilities and how to teach at this age vs an adult population.  I've saved many of them over the years so I can easily swap them in and out for variety.

[AbbyUSA, BSN, RN]

When I had a nursing student, she had to create a presentation and pamphlet for her course. I emailed the middle school health teacher and asked if the nursing student could present to one of her classes. I can't remember the topic, but it worked out for everyone. 

[sergel02, BSN]

Thanks all! I'll only have for a couple weeks so maybe not enough time to do a presentation but maybe a poster, but they do have a lot of projects this semester. I actually haven't made a poster as a nurse before so maybe my student will have ideas for topics I can use LOL