U of A nursing students speak to classes at RHS
Posted on Saturday, April 1, 2006
URL: http://www.nwanews.com/brog/News/33125/
ROGERS — Stephanie Swinney tries to give her students a taste of the professional world before they graduate from high school. They take vital signs, give first aid, make a bed, operate a wheelchair, and on some days, like on Thursday, they glimpse their future.
When Swinney asked her Rogers High School students if any of them intended on becoming a nurse, several hands flew up. Those students asked several questions of two nursing students from the University of Arkansas who discussed a variety of careers in nursing. "You make a difference in other people’s lives. You have job security," U of A senior Shayla Barr told the class Thursday.
Barr will graduate this spring with a bachelor’s degree in nursing. She hopes, after a few years, to work toward a master’s degree to become a nurse practitioner. She and schoolmate David Shew, both board members of the Student Nurses Association at U of A’s Eleanor Mann School of Nursing, addressed the Rogers sophomores, juniors and seniors with hopes that some of the students will help abate the nurse shortage, which Barr said has caused some hospitals to close down whole floors. "This shortage is something that’s going to get worse before it gets better," Barr said. "What better time to catch people than in high school, when they’re trying to decide what to do?"
RHS senior Liliana Barajas plans to enroll this fall in a nursing program at Crowder College in Neosho, Mo., and perhaps transfer to the U of A. Barajas said she will be the first from her family to become a nurse. Barajas enrolled in Swinney’s introduction to medical professions class after taking another class with the teacher. "We get to do hands-on stuff, and it’s really fun," Barajas said.
The presentations in Swinney’s classes — including her personal finance class — were the first of several Barr and Shew hope to do. Their student association has scheduled a visit to Springdale High School on Wednesday and to the Regional Technology Center in Fayetteville later in April.
Tom Kippenbrock, director of the Eleanor Mann School of Nursing, said the school is trying to increase outreach activities, boost enrollment and add faculty as ways of addressing the shortage of nurses. The school started enrolling students twice a year, which has helped enrollment jump from 35 in 2003 to more than 100 this year. He said the nursing school started offering scholarships to bilingual students last year, especially targeting bilingual students in the Springdale School District.
Swinney said she hopes her students will start looking at the financial aspects of nursing school after listening to the college students’ presentation and said it’s nice to hear the nursing students repeat what she has told her students. Swinney said she plans to have more speakers in her classes as the RHS school year comes to a close.