Student nurses visit schools to teach about healthy lifestyles

Schools in Scotland are being visited by student nurses to raise awareness of healthy lifestyle choices.

Undergraduate adult and mental health nursing students from the University of West Scotland are visiting more than 90 schools as part of the Fitness for Practice university module, which asks them to deliver health activities to a community group.

They used the university’s Class in a Bag portable educational resource, which contains a range of props to help educate school children about a chosen health topic.

As well as healthy living, the student nurses also spoke to schoolchildren about the subjects of resilience and dementia.

Winnie  McGarry, 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.”

The programme is not only helping to educate schoolchildren, but it is also integrated into students’ coursework, with their performance in delivering the health messages subject to an examination, allowing them to critically discuss their activities.

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