Alva Review-Courier -

A small number of various children of the Alva community visited Northwestern on Tuesday to receive short check-ups from the students in the nursing care of the family course, taught by Assistant Professor of Nursing Dr. Jennifer Mahieu.

"For our nursing students to be able to take care of sick children in the hospitals or clinics, they must know and understand the normal growth and development of all children of all age groups," Mahieu said. "So that's why we do our pediatric assessment day."

The students were able to practice performing assessments on the children, ranging from skin, hair, nails, head, face, neck, nose, mouth, throat, lungs, heart, musculoskeletal, neurological, height, weight, and vital signs. There are 19 students enrolled in the course this semester. However, not all of them are "traditional" students.

"Every year, we have a few that may decide that nursing is not for them at this time, but then they decide to come back the following year," Mahieu said. "So what they do is come back to continue their education.

"Some may have personal issues, some may have academic issues, and some may have professional issues that would be related to maybe their work place employment.

"This may have caused them to be a little bit ahead in one area, but now they are right back to being at the same level as the rest of the class."

Booklyn Zimmerman sees how a stethoscope operates with the help of junior nursing student, Jentrey Lancaster and Sheridan Duncan.

Each child was given an assessment paper to take to each station to ensure its completion. Each station held three to four nursing students, and each assessment had its own station. Each "pediatric patient" visited all of the stations in order to get a full check-up from the student nurses.

Some of the nursing students explained that pediatrics was not their area of focus. However, Mahieu explained why this day is necessary.

"To be able to pass the National Council Licensure Examination, you must know a little bit of all of it," Mahieu said. "But here at Northwestern, we also want to give them a little bit of everything."

"I love what I do, and I get very excited about pediatrics," Mahieu said.

"I get very passionate about pediatric nursing. There's so much that a pediatric nurse can do."