Sonja Wilson of Southaven Volunteers in Community with Northwest Practical Nursing Students

2012 Apr 20

Sonja Wilson of Southaven was among several practical nursing students from Northwest Mississippi Community College's DeSoto Center who have been volunteering in the community to help build upon their educational studies in the practical nursing program. While students are working on practicum studies in the clinical settings of Baptist Memorial Hospital Desoto, Senatobia Convalescent Center, Landmark of Desoto or Desoto Health Care and Rehab, they are also volunteering their nursing skills with the children at ICC Headstart in Southaven and applying critical thinking skills in disaster training classes in Memphis.

"We have had awesome eight months of hands on learning. Our class traveled twice to Memphis and visited the Medical Education Research Institute (MERI)," said Paula Geeter, practical nursing instructor at DeSoto Center. MERI is a nonprofit medical teaching and training facility in Memphis that conducts state-of-the art, hands-on educational courses for physicians, nurses, medical and nursing students and any member of the healthcare team from across the country and around the world.

On their first visit to MERI during the fall semester, students discovered firsthand what type of research is being done in the facility.

"In March, we spent the entire day participating in emergency response training for disasters. The participation in this training included rescuing victims from a building filled with artificial smoke. The building had computerized mannequins with various degrees of injuries and resuscitation measures were needed to revive each mannequin. When rescuing our victims, we were all dressed out in full fire-fighter gear, which weighed over 20 lbs. This experience pushed the practical nursing students to care for patients in a fast paced, ever changing conditions when a disaster occurs," said Geeter. "Whether practical nursing students decide to work in an emergency response field or not, it was beneficial for us to learn how to think critically when providing emergency medical care."

The remaining part of their training consisted of several hours of hands-on examination of cadavers in the M.E.R.I. laboratories. "This provided the students a learning opportunity beyond what any textbook or mannequin could possibly convey," said Geeter.

In addition to their visits to MERI, the students also volunteered at Southaven ICS Headstart Center twice. Each practical nursing student had the opportunity to assist with measuring height and weight of over 200 small children in a span of an hour and half.

"Working with children is very different from the patients at the hospital or nursing homes and especially from the cadavers and mannequins in the lab. The practical nursing students learned that patience is a great asset of being a nurse. Both experiences were fun and educational which we can use in furthering our careers as nurses," Geeter said.

For more information on the practical nursing programs at Northwest, visit the website at www.northwestms.edu.

Pictured: This semester the Northwest Mississippi Community College practical nursing class at DeSoto Center volunteered their nursing skills at ICC Headstart in Southaven and applied their critical thinking skills in disaster training classes in Memphis. Pictured are: first row (l-r) Lamedra Payne, Aimee Tyler, Adrienne Fuchs, Jessica Wilkins, Katy Key, Cassie Lee, Joanna Weeks, Sonja Wilson, Alice Grandberry, Samantha Rice and Kristen Bounds. Second row (l-r) Cassandra Arteaga, Pamela Harris, Crystal Shelton, Mallory Wakham, Chelsea Shepherd, Jane Sayle. Jeremy Jeffrey, Kimberly Cross and Whitney Blair. (Photo submitted)