UWO nursing students Nick Churchill, Harleigh Eagan, Maddy Erdman, Rosa Jahns, Amber Nygren, Emily Schendel and Emma Stuettgen, pause for a photo at the WPS Farm Show on the EAA grounds, where they provided free health screenings.
UW-Oshkosh nursing student Emma Stuettgen discusses health care with a participant at the recent WPS Farm Show in Oshkosh.
University of Wisconsin–Oshkosh senior nursing students had a chance to share their skills and knowledge with the farming community–and learn about a few of their challenges–at a recent farm show event featuring hundreds of exhibitors and guests from around the state and beyond.
“Students performed telehealth education and blood pressure screenings and health education for WPS (Wisconsin Public Service) attendees,” said UWO Clinical Associate Professor Debbie Walrath, who added that attendees sought screenings for a variety of reasons including those with known high blood pressure. A few participants were unaware of their blood pressure issue and referred to their primary care providers.
“We had all ages of participants and students educated the community members—many rural who experience poorer health outcomes and chronic disease due to loack of access to care,” Walrath said. “Rural community members have fewer providers available, fewer clinics locally and have to travel farther distances to clinics and hospitals.”
The student nurses are part of a Communities Clinical class. They educated participants on telehealth services to receive care from home, in an effort to provide options to increase access to care and desired health outcomes.
“The farm show was truly a special experience for my clinical group,” said Sussex native Emma Stuettgen, a Senior 1 nursing student set to graduate in December. “It was really great to take our skills and education and bring that to the WPS Farm Show. We got to meet so many farmers and their families and learn about their backgrounds. Many of them expressed how they often don’t see their physicians yearly due to the needs of their career and families. It was important to us to be able to educate them on the importance of their health, specifically their blood pressure readings. We also were able to educate them on the use of telehealth as wll which allows access to care from the comfort of their own homes through the use of a telephone, computer, iPad, etc… My group overall just loved being able to shar our skills and education with a community who doesn’t always have access to health screenings as often as they may need.”
Stuettgen currently works as a nursing assistant at Children’s Wisconsin in Neenah, on the pediatric floor and neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) and she hopes to continue working there after graduation.
Learning by doing
Partnerships with area organizations and events enhances the learning experience for UWO students and Walrath said community members at the event expressed appreciation for the students’ service, screening, education and health promotion. Walrath added that many people offered well wishes to students in their future nursing careers.
UWO faculty and staff are committed to training the next generation of nurses and the College of Nursing expects to send nearly 100 graduates into the workforce following Commencement next month.
Click through the photo gallery below to see Nursing students at the Farm Show:
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