SDSU nursing students teach kids healthy summer habits at zoo

A group of 37 South Dakota State University nursing students promoted healthy summer habits by holding a health fair at the Great Plains Zoo on June 16.

The event, which offered the zoo’s youngest visitors lessons in water safety, sun protection and physical activity, served as pediatric clinical experience for the SDSU students. The organizers were all second-semester nursing students from the program’s Sioux Falls site.

“The students spend some time in the hospital with acutely ill children, and this is their non-acute experience, where they get to interact with children who are healthy. They engage with the kids and really learn how kids learn best, how to interact with kids, talk to kids,” said Cori Heier, lecturer in the SDSU College of Nursing.

“We’ve got our health promotion activities here, so this is a really great way for the students to incorporate health teaching while they’re learning and assessing children’s health and development. And then how do we adjust our teaching based on what we’re noticing, different age groups, etc.?”

Heier said the zoo was a perfect location for the health fair because it attracts a steady stream of visitors from a wide age range. “We were so thankful to be able to come to the zoo today and have this community partnership.”

In preparation for the event, the nursing students had refreshers on different developmental levels for kids and what types of activities were appropriate for a variety of ages.

Children spent their time at the health fair learning about water safety—discovering which items sink or float in a tub of water, trying on life jackets and hearing about safe swimming tips. At the sun safety station, kids spread sunscreen on animal characters to make sure everything was covered.

Physical exercise activities included bowling, kicking soccer balls, throwing footballs and bean bags, and running through bubbles set up near the picnic shelter. Activities also incorporated animals, such as walk like a bear, hop like a frog and run like a cheetah, to make exercise fun.

Lesly Gonzalez, a second-semester nursing student from Garretson who is part of SDSU’s Sioux Falls standard B.S.N. program, spent most of her time at the health fair guiding children in the sink-or-float demonstration.

“I think kids have been loving it. They’ve been listening, and some of them have taught me a thing or two about their favorite animals,” Gonzalez said.

She said the event helped reinforce what the nursing students should observe for children’s development in each age group.

“We’re watching these kids at different age groups being able to meet milestones, how they move their arms, being able to hold their head up, talking to us. Things like that are really valuable for us to know in the future,” Gonzalez said.

Grace Rengel, a second-semester nursing student from Maple Grove, Minnesota, manned the sunscreen safety station and helped with physical activity.

“Just by bringing the kids in and being open and inviting, we’re observing how they move and participate in the activities, how they respond to our questions,” Rengel said.

Both agreed there were benefits for the kids and parents in attendance as well, including passing on safety tips and stressing the importance of physical activity.

Patsy Hendricks, a teacher from Brookings, attended the health fair with her daughter and granddaughter and said she appreciated the nursing students’ efforts.

“We knew we were coming to the zoo, and we saw the health fair, so it all worked out. We love to support anything SDSU does, so being able to stop and just reinforce these skills was important to us as a family,” Hendricks said.

“For me, from a teacher’s perspective, I like seeing the different things the students planned to reach all levels of children and families. … You have to reach the kids’ level to help them understand, and I think the students have done a really good job with it, with the activities they have here,” Hendricks added.