Nursing students in 3rd year have the opportunity to learn about and apply concepts of community health/social determinants of health to at risk-populations in a variety of community settings. In Clinical Practice: Community Health, our students develop and provide meaningful Health Promotion presentations for children, youth, or families in order to educate and empower them. Our main clinical site this year was Manitoba Youth Centre, a youth correctional facility with Manitoba Justice. The youth expressed much appreciation for the many health presentations given by students this past year – some groups also received huge “Thank you” cards from the girls and “Teacher Sara”. Please read on to hear one student’s reflection on her experience from Manitoba Youth Centre!

–Tanya Cole RN, BScN – Nursing Instructor

Community health nursing is all about meeting people where they are, and that can mean so many different things. Often that’s very abstract, like where they are in their lives’ journeys, where they are in a disease process, or where they are emotionally, but it can also mean where they literally are – in this case, in a correctional facility. One thing that really struck me about the learning we did at MYC is that we did all of the assessment processes of trying to understand the context that our clients were living in socially, emotionally, physically, spiritually, and economically, but then we also had to actually go to them. I think that’s an important part of community nursing and public health nursing, because so often the people who have the most unmet needs for care or education are the ones who don’t seek it out. If we want to be serious about health equity, it’s our job as healthcare workers to find the people who might not present themselves to us.

Nurses (and student nurses!) have to be ready for unfamiliarity and ready to use any and all tools at our disposal. Sometimes we might be giving our presentation to a small group huddled around a laptop, and if we can be adaptable, we can use these things to our advantage, as we did at MYC. I think even the fact that we had to stand relatively close together and all look at the same small resource made for a very conversational style of presentation and encouraged a remarkable dialog with the participants we presented to. I was humbled by their honesty and engagement.

– Hannah Done [she, her, hers] – Student Nurse (Year 3) – Red River College Polytechnic

This week, pediatric clinical nursing students were visited by Dr. Goodbear. Dr. Goodbear has been the long-time mascot for the Children’s Hospital Foundation. Dr. Goodbear is a symbol of the comfort and care provided for kids in need. The Children’s Hospital Foundation has raised over $165 million dollars to help support research and equipment for the children of Manitoba, Northwestern Ontario, and Nunavut.

Post and photos by Monica Nash – Nursing Instructor

MAY THE HOLIDAYS BE FULL AND BRIGHT!

THANK YOU TO THE WINNIPEG JETS WHO WERE VISITING THE PEDIATRIC WARD WHILE OUR STUDENTS WERE THERE AND TOOK THE TIME TO WISH EVERYONE A HAPPY HOLIDAY SEASON!

WRITTEN BY: Jennifer Johnson – Nursing Lab Manager

PHOTO BY: Monica Nash – Nursing Instructor

I asked my students at the end of their 1820 clinical rotation to share some tips and tricks with their fellow students heading into clinical next term. I also asked them to share some challenges they have come across in clinical during COVID, and how they were able to overcome these challenges. They were excited to share their thoughts and knowledge, even at the end of a long clinical term, and at the end of our last day! Since these students had been through 1810 pre-COVID, they have a unique perspective to share.

This is what they said:

-Ask questions when you are unsure

-Remember to breathe

-Get to know your patients and tasks will become easier

-Trust your assessment skills

-Prepare by researching your skills ahead of time that you know you will be doing. For example, if you know your patient uses the Sara lift to transfer, go over that skill. Utilize your techniques knowledge; remember your steps.

-Make clinical fun: look for learning opportunities; enjoy what you are doing.

-Always but especially during COVID: remember to wash your hands. “If you think you have washed them enough, you haven’t”.

-Masks and eye protection make connecting with your patients more challenging, since your patient is not able to see your face or facial expressions. Enhance your communication; use more non-verbal techniques such as therapeutic touch, massage. For example, apply lotion to your patient’s feet in order to spend more time with them and provide therapeutic touch.

-Because you are not able to see your patient when you come for research, there is more of the unknown on your clinical day. So rely more on interprofessional communication, and talk with the nurse or health care aid caring for the patient that day. Also, this means it is even more important to complete a thorough assessment on your clinical day.

-Things can become stressful, so try to go with the flow, and practice self care.

Post by Kirsten Loewen – Nursing Instructor

RRC students in their first clinical course are being recognized in various ways by hospital staff at more than one hospital. St Boniface unit 4B is a busy medical unit. The staff there maintain a kind of “cheers for peers” bulletin board where they can commend their co-workers for especially good performance. What is unique is the staff are recognizing the efforts of student nurses in this way. Students have been commended for such things as “recognizing a medical issue” and “being helpful throughout the shift”. The unit staff have remarked that the students “are not standing around” and they are appreciative of this. At Selkirk General Hospital, the staff have been impressed with the ability of their first term students. They told Debbie Miller, the Clinical Course Leader, that they are impressed with the students’ assessing and reporting skills. At Victoria Hospital, the staff are asking if the students can come back the next day because they are so helpful. These first year students are off to a great start and the Nursing faculty and staff at RRC are happy to see that.

Post written by Kate Tate and Deb Miller – Nursing Instructors

L-R: Casey, Ana, Mallory, Pooya, Lyn, Tonya, and Ashley – with Beverly (Operations Manager)

Every five weeks a new group of nursing students begin their Older Adult Community Clinical rotation. Students participated in a number of clinical activities from holding public education events, to running blood pressure clinics, to collaborating with community partners like Lighthouse Mission. Last Thursday we had the opportunity to learn about and address a few social determinants of health – including homelessness and poverty.

This group of caring students also chose to bring some emergency food hamper items that were desperately needed. We then made our way to the kitchen and “floor” to serve some hearty soup and sandwiches… and take blood pressures! Students recognized the power of eye-contact and smiles as powerful nursing skills to use with a population of people who often go ignored or unnoticed.

Beverly shared more pictures from that afternoon on the Lighthouse Mission Facebook page.

Post written by Tanya Cole RN BScN – RRC Clinical Nursing Instructor