The Grove | Valencia College

Student Nurses Volunteer at BrightStart Pediatrics

Jan

9

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A Message from Falecia Williams, President, West and Downtown Campuses

Nursing students, faculty and staff volunteered over the holiday season at three BrightStart Pediatrics centers, which provide nursing care and therapy to children from birth to age 7 who require ongoing medical care for special needs. On Tuesday, December 17 – Thursday, December 19, 2019, 33 students assisted the children with opening presents and helped them pose for photos with Santa Claus at the centers in Winter Garden, Orlando and Sanford.

As future nurses, students shared that the experience was valuable:

• I gained so much understanding of what their world is like.
• I was afraid to touch them as they looked so fragile.
• I didn’t anticipate that the children would calm down in my arms.
• That these kids are truly like other kids.
• I was scared at first; they look so intimidating with those tubes hanging out but they are just kids.
• This has shaped me more than I thought it would.
• Thank you for inviting me; this will make me a better nurse.

Students also joined Simulation Coordinator Mike Hilliard for the Breathe 150 Conference on Friday, December 6, 2019, at the Winter Garden Theater where he spoke on how children with special needs often have lower developmental understanding, and although their body betrays their age, they are still children based on the cognitive understanding.

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