Mid-way through their first semester, Nursing ADN students conducted live patient assessments on a lively bunch of senior volunteers.
In the third year of partnering with SCTCC’s Nursing ADN program, seniors from the Retired Senior Volunteer Program (RSVP) volunteered their time to serve as patients. Through volunteer service, RSVP seeks to meet critical needs in the community and engage seniors through meaningful experiences.
This works out well for the nursing students. Instead of practicing patient assessment scenarios through role-playing and simulation labs, the students encounter the unique health situations of each volunteer. Students may find irregular heartbeats, balance issues, or any number of unique health conditions.
“We provide students with many in-depth clinical patient care opportunities and working with RSVP has been a great addition to the program,” said Nursing ADN Instructor, Carolyn Neubauer. “Patient care experience with the senior population is critical to being a good nurse and we’re really grateful to RSVP for volunteering their time for the benefit of our students and the patients they’ll encounter.”
