Adult practical nursing students assist with screenings
The students rotate stations so each can get experience doing all the screenings. This fall, 32 adult nursing students and 17 high school nursing students will help with screenings in Wooster City Schools, including Cornerstone Elementary and Edgewood Middle schools.
The screenings benefit both the children and the nursing students, said Jackie Shrock, adult practical nursing coordinator. The nursing students are under close supervision of a nursing instructor, she said, as well as the Wooster City Schools nurses. The nursing students benefit by expanding their communication skills with children, learning physical and psychological growth and development stages, organization, working with other registered nurses and observing the role of school nurses. The schools and children benefit by having the screenings done quickly and efficiently, as many stations can be running at the same time.
The career center has been part of the screening program since 1997. Quota Club of Wooster donated the audiometer to the Wayne County Schools Career Center nursing department, and Wooster Lions Club donated the vision box.
Wooster school nurses Beth Gerber, Shelly Mountjoy and Heidi Steiner coordinate the program, and speak personally to each child after the screenings. Parents are notified if a student does not pass a particular part of the screening. "We just screen for problems, and then if needed, a referral is sent for the child to have the testing done with their physician or eye professional," said Gerber.