This is the second semester we’ve had senior nursing student interns placed at Granny’s House, and you’re probably wondering, “Why in the world would you need nurses at Granny’s House?”
To be honest, I actually asked myself that same question when their supervising professor at the University of Missouri’s Sinclair School of Nursing first approached us with the idea of placing senior students at Granny’s House for a semester. Serving at Granny’s House, she believes, will give the students invaluable experience in working with “vulnerable populations” – giving them a 3-D, close up view of what they learn in their Community Health class.
Jessica Garcia Oyervides and Deidre Brookins have been a tremendous asset to Granny’s House. We believe the Nursing School, again, sent us the “cream” of the cream of the crop students!!
Their internship began with several weeks of just hanging out with the kids, participating in a variety of groups and activities as a means of getting to know the kids and assess how to best address the health needs of their families, and the community.
The fruit of their season of full immersion into Granny’s House was the development of “PASSPORT to Health and Safety” - a full week of demonstrations and hands-on activities to teach the kids the basics of keeping safe and living a healthy lifestyle.
Jessica and Deidre not only planned the week’s activities, they also recruited volunteers, collected supplies, and raised the funds to purchase the first aid and hygiene kits that every family at Granny’s House received. We cannot thank Jessica, Deidre, and the many community sponsors enough for such a fun, informative week at the Granny’s House! We all learned a lot.
