School nurses at eight of the school system’s elementary schools got some much-needed help with annual vision and hearing screenings, giving high school students enrolled in Allied Health courses an opportunity to put their classroom knowledge to use.
Allied Health students from Fayette County High, McIntosh High, Sandy Creek High and Starr’s Mill High helped coordinate mass hearing and vision screenings for students at Braelinn Elementary, Fayetteville Elementary, Cleveland Elementary, Inman Elementary, Huddleston Elementary, Oak Grove Elementary, Peeples Elementary, and Spring Hill Elementary. All totaled, over 4,600 screenings were conducted.
Healthcare science teachers Teronia Blake, LPN, and Julie McKenna, RN, had the idea to take their students out of the classroom to give them a real-world experience of working in healthcare. Before students could administer the screenings, they had to pass a Special Senses review exam, and conduct a “live lab” with their teachers to practice giving an actual screening.
The Allied Health students learned a lot from the experience, both from a medical standpoint and the psychology of adolescents. One student commented that she learned that colorblindness is usually caught when children are young, and other noted that younger kids tend to get upset if they think they got something wrong.
“This was a great experience for the students. They absolutely loved the opportunity to go offsite and interact as ‘providers’,” said teacher Teronia Blake, LPN.
School nurses say they were very thankful for the extra help this year in what is a tremendous undertaking in addition to their regular duties of administering medications and taking care of sick and injured students and staff.
“The students did a phenomenal job,” says Lori Wannamaker, RN, and school nurse at Fayetteville Elementary. “They were efficient and very well organized. They expedited the process of what is often a difficult task. We are very grateful for the contribution that they made to our school.”
