Nursing Students Teach ABCs of Healthy Lifestyle

INDIANAPOLIS – Success can be shown in different ways, including a single slice of pizza and a carton of plain milk on a student’s cafeteria tray.

For Terrilynn Quillen, an IU School of Nursing (SON) graduate student, the lunch showed the student had made “a good start” toward selecting healthier meal choices.

Quillen, another SON graduate student and nine SON undergraduate students did something unlike anything else student nurses do: they taught ninth graders at George Washington about healthy food choices and the importance of being physically active.

Their teaching is part of the Fit for Life Program, an interdisciplinary community-campus partnership that focuses on promoting health behaviors to prevent obesity among children, a need identified by IPS and the west side community where the school is located. The School of Physical Education and Tourism Management also participates in the program at George Washington.

“One of the main reasons we partnered with George Washington is the strong tradition of the community being involved in the school,” noted Rose Mays, Rose Mays, professor, Department of Family Health, and a specialist in adolescent health care. Mays is a pediatric nurse practitioner and serves as associate director of the Leadership Education in Adolescent Health interdisciplinary program.

Two years ago the SON, in a joint effort with the Department of Health in the IU School of Medicine, produced a health report card for WESCO in which the community identified health priorities.

Initially, SON students attempted to work with George Washington students on a voluntary basis after school. The SON then sought to institutionalize the activity by teaching about healthy nutritional choices and the importance of physical activity as a component of ninth grade health classes.

The students worked with a veterans IPS teacher, Michael Lakes, as they switched roles from being students to teaching students.

“He has shared hints, tips and insights from his wisdom gained in over 30 years of classroom teaching experience--the kind of ‘hands-on’ helpful information that isn't always found in textbooks,” Quillen said. “For a career nurse like myself with no formal background in K-12 education, his mentoring has helped me to build new skills in this area.” Quillen has a bachelor’s degree in nursing, is a registered nurse, and is a graduate student in Environments for Health-Community Health Nursing.

The SON students used a nationally validated curriculum to guide their teaching.

According to Quillen, George Washington students have generally been cooperative and motivated to learn more about health, exercise and nutrition. She gets to watch what impact the health classes have on students at lunchtime in the school’s cafeteria.

“On most occasions I witness the health class students making healthy meal choices. Recently, one of my students stopped to show me his meal tray and ask ‘Is this healthy enough?’ I was happy to tell him that the single slice of pizza and the carton of plain milk he was holding was a good start,” Quillen said. “This conversation on healthy food choices resumed the next day during our basic concepts review in class. It's apparent that Fit for Life is succeeding in raising students' awareness of personal nutrition and fitness--and ‘raising awareness’ is a critical first step in motivating for change.”

Cynthia L. Stone Dr PH, RN, C, Clinical Associate Professor, served as the faculty preceptor for Quillen. She noted Quillen had the opportunity to develop personal skills in program development and evaluation by serving as the facilitator for the nutrition classes at George Washington. “Terri has researched and adapted both teaching and learning styles to connect with the student population at GWCS. A nutritional assessment was used with students during the spring 2006 semester which has enabled the project to be more outcome oriented and data driven.”

Teaching in the health class is not part of the students’ regular curriculum. It’s something they signed on to do as a service learning experience.

During the fall and spring semesters, there were four undergraduate students who received Service Learning Assistant Scholarships to be involved in the “Fit for Life” nutrition education program. The students developed lesson plans adapted from the Planet Health curriculum and actually taught the classes.

The SON would like to broaden its community health-related efforts in the future as WESCO develops its health plan, said Anne Belcher, associate professor, Department of Environments for Health. Belcher has a background in community health nursing, with emphasis on children's health. “Our hope is to be able to continue this and add other activities as the community determines its needs.”