Last week, Moraine Park Technical College (MPTC) nursing students partnered with Oakfield Elementary School to teach K-5 students the importance of hand hygiene and germ control.
The event was coordinated by MPTC Nursing Instructor, Casey Truse, and Oakfield Elementary School Nurse, Mekenzie Bowe. The six participating nursing students from Truse’s class included Nick Santiago of Kenosha, Paige Fraley of Hartford, Kendra Smith of Hartford, Michael Boyd of Manteno, Kali Herrick of Horicon and Kasey Butcher of West Bend.
The students each presented individually to two classrooms. They were given three weeks to prepare their presentations and cater their approach to their assigned grade levels ranging from kindergarten to fifth grade.
“We do a teaching project every semester in this clinical, and they typically present to each other on some type of key learning they attained,” Truse said. “Being able to get out into the community again since the onset of the pandemic is great.”
The presentations went over how to properly wash your hands and what can happen if you let germs linger. Some of the presentations included books and songs about handwashing and experiments using glitter, pepper, and more.
“Hand hygiene and germ control is super important for our students to learn going into flu season,” Oakfield Elementary School Nurse, Mekenzie Bowe, said. “We always try to reinforce the importance of handwashing, but learning it today in such a fun, engaging way is much more impactful for our students.”
MPTC nursing student, Nick Santiago, demonstrated the impact of hand washing by bringing in petri dishes with samples he took from his own hands. The samples showed the amount of bacteria that can grow after washing your hands properly, washing with just cold water, and not washing at all.
“The germs were nasty,” an Oakfield Elementary fifth grader said about the experience. “Not washing your hands makes way more germs than when you wash your hands with hot water.”
In November, Truse’s nursing students partnered with Oakfield School District to assist with hearing and vision screening. They were asked to come back and work with the students again–this time with a focus on teaching them.
“It is important for students to learn how to adapt clinical care across the lifespan ranging from pediatrics to geriatrics,” Truse said. “We as a nursing program love for students to have interactions and experiences with people of all ages. Our goal is to continue partnering with schools within our communities to create impactful learning experiences for all.”
Oakfield Elementary is Truse’s hometown elementary school, so the partnership between the schools brings her education-to-teaching journey full circle.
“Being back in Oakfield and working with such an amazing district is an honor,” Truse said. “Walking the halls of the schools I once attended, seeing familiar faces that shaped my own childhood education, and guiding our nursing students through such a neat experience was all around incredibly rewarding.”
