MCC Daily Tribune

Impactful Practices by Nursing Students

As a first semester nursing faculty member, I am always experiencing moments of pride for how our nursing students provide exceptional care to our elderly residents in long-term care. The residents who live in a long-term care facility typically have many chronic, complex medical problems and require extensive care for all of their activities of daily living.

This semester three students in particular took the time and energy outside of clinical time to work on a project that will impact the life of one of our residents long after our clinical rotation ends. Gail Ryan, Meghane Nganmo, and Ayla Dukatz identified communication difficulties in one of the residents due to a chronic, progressive neurological disease and wanted to find a way to help. They took a simple strategy of using a picture board to assist with communication, and worked together with the resident to custom-make one based upon the resident's needs and wants. This collaboration with the resident allowed them to create a very specific set of images and words that this resident wanted communicated to the staff on a daily basis.

As a nurse who has witnessed this resident’s communication difficulties worsen over time, it gave me great joy to watch the students present the picture boards to the resident and explain how to use them. For the remainder of that day at clinical, the resident used the picture boards multiple times to communicate their needs. The Director of Nursing of the facility planned to incorporate the use of the student-developed picture boards into the resident’s care plan that will be utilized by all caregivers. This small act will leave a lasting impression.

Photo Caption: MCC nursing students, Gail Ryan, Meghane Nganmo, and Ayla Dukatz, holding up the picture boards they created for a resident with difficulty communicating.

Attached Files:
Nursing Students Gail Meghane and Ayla.jpg

Judith Wilson
Nursing
12/05/2022