Student nurses have health lessons in the bag for kids
ANDREA LAMBROU
Hundreds of local nursing students have been visiting schools across the country to raise awareness of healthy lifestyle choices.
Using the University’s award-winning ‘Class in a Bag’ resource, University of the West of Scotland (UWS) nurses have also been educating schoolchildren about the sensitive topics of resilience and dementia.
Over the last two weeks, around 217 finalyear adult and mental health nursing students from the university’s Lanarkshire campus have travelled to more than 27 local schools* as part of their Fitness for Practice module, which asks students to deliver health activities to a community group.
Class in a Bag is a portable educational resource which contains a range of props to help educate school children about a chosen health topic.
Each year, head teachers are invited to select from a range of subjects, with the human bodythemed Class in a Bag, for example, including materials which help children learn about what happens to food when we eat it.
The initiative is the work of UWS academics Fiona Everett, Wendy Wright, Caroline MacCallum and Winnie McGarry.
Winnie, who is a lecturer in adult nursing and a deputy programme lead, said: “We are proud of our undergraduate nursing students who, for the past two weeks, have been on the road across Scotland, teaching young people about important health topics, including the benefits of not smoking, resilience, the human body, healthy eating, handwashing, resilience and dementia.
“Forming a crucial part of the UWS students’ coursework, the Class in a Bag activity has also addressed the Scottish Government’s Curriculum for Excellence programme.
“We hope that the children have enjoyed learning about a range of health topics in a fun, hands-on and engaging way.
“I am confident that this activity has prepared the students to become confident professional practitioners as they near programme completion and we also look forward to working with more schools in the future.”