FOR RELEASE: Thursday, December 11, 2008
Five Mann School Students Chosen to Work at Texas Scottish Rite Hospital in Dallas
Emily Donnelli, above from left, Kate Delph, Christin Cooke and Meagan Williamson, students in the Eleanor Mann School of Nursing, enjoyed working last summer with children at the spina bifida camp operated by Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for Children in Dallas.
Below, Kate Delph, Meagan Williamson, Rachel Dahl and Christin Cooke pose in their camp T-shrits.
For nursing student Christin Cooke, an experience last summer helped her make up her mind about becoming a pediatric oncology nurse.
She and four other seniors in the Eleanor Mann School of Nursing – Rachel Dahl, Kate Delph, Emily Donnelli and Meagan Williamson – spent the summer working at Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for Children in Dallas. The hospital is a world leader in the treatment of pediatric orthopedic conditions.
For all of the nursing students, the experience provided invaluable instruction and experience to augment the clinical work they do during the school year. Nursing students are required to work several rotations in health-care settings such as hospitals, clinics and long-term care facilities.
"This solidified my desire to work with children," Cooke said of the summer externship in Texas.
She was able to gain valuable experience, not only working with children of all ages, but also with their parents.
"The interaction with children of all ages was helpful," Delph agreed. "You had to figure out the child's developmental age and how best to interact with them."
The hospital treats children from birth to 18 years of age.
"I'm still trying to decide exactly what I'd like to do with my nursing degree," Delph said. "I loved pediatrics – I didn't know if it would be too hard.
"I love kids and had a wonderful experience working as a summer camp counselor previously, but I knew that it might be extremely hard to watch children suffer and struggle with any acute or chronic disease," Delph explained. "For these reasons, I knew that I would have strong feelings on either extreme in working with pediatric patients ... but I absolutely loved it."
A pediatric, orthopedic facility, the Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for Children was established in 1921 when a group of Texas Masons approached Dallas' first orthopedic surgeon, Dr. W. B. Carrell, about caring for children with polio regardless of the family's ability to pay, according to the hospital's Web site. With the introduction of the Salk and Sabin vaccines in the mid-1950s, which virtually eradicated polio in the Western Hemisphere, the hospital broadened its focus to other orthopedic conditions.
The hospital has treated more than 180,000 children with more than 40,000 clinic visits each year. It treats children with orthopedic conditions such as scoliosis, clubfoot, hand disorders, hip disorders and limb length differences, as well as certain related neurological disorders and learning disorders such as dyslexia.
Through the generous support of friends in the community, all services are provided without charge to patient families.
Renee Manworren, director of professional clinical development at Scottish Rite Hospital, supervised the students during the externship. Because summer is the busiest season at the hospital, she said, the hospital relies on the externs to come in with much energy and enthusiasm for nursing.
"The care we provide at Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for Children is specialized so we don't expect the externs to be familiar with the diagnoses or surgical procedures," Manworren explained. "We do, however, count on them to have a good understanding of basic nursing skills, which we then help them apply to our unique patient population.
"We have never had nurse externs from the University of Arkansas before," she continued, "so we did not know what they would bring to our team, but after working with Christin, Kate, Rachel, Emily and Meagan, I would be happy to have a nurse from the University of Arkansas care for me, my kids and my patients at Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for Children in the future. They are excellent representatives of your school, and I anticipate exemplary careers in nursing for each of them."
Being chosen for the externship at Scottish Rite Hospital was an honor. More than 100 nursing students applied for it, and only 17 were chosen. The five University of Arkansas students didn't know beforehand that their classmates had also applied.
"We were talking about it later, and we discovered several of us had applied to work there," Cooke said.
The application was similar to a real hospital job application, Cooke explained. On the application, they were required to explain what their objectives were for the summer work. They started at the hospital almost immediately after final exams were over last May and worked through the middle of August.
The students worked different shifts in different areas of the hospital. Cooke and Williamson worked three, 12-hour shifts each week doing patient care. Delph, Donnelli and Dahl all worked from 8 to 5 weekdays in a clinic at the hospital.
"Every child made progress," Cooke said. "Everybody left in better condition than when they arrived."
The nursing students also worked at therapeutic recreational camps the hospital operates for patients.
"It was great to see kids who were initially afraid to try something learn to do it and enjoy it," Delph recalled. "They had the time of their lives. It helped them to feel normal because everyone around them was the same as them."
Faculty of the Eleanor Mann School of Nursing encourage students to apply for such externships as a way to deepen their knowledge and skill as well as to explore specialty areas, said Kathleen Barta, associate professor of nursing.
"Such experiences allow students to experience the work life of the nurse," Barta said, "and thus prepare them for an easier transition after graduation. Such experiences may also lead to job offers."
The five students are from the Dallas area so they lived with their parents during the summer.
Each student was assigned a preceptor nurse, Cooke explained. The term refers to a teacher or instructor.
The students also took notice of the hospital's dedication to serve patients at no cost.
"It was neat to see the whole spectrum," Delph said. "The patients' families ranged from poor to really wealthy, and they were all treated the same. No one was expected to pay."
The students will be in the work force soon as all plan to graduate this month or in May, and the experience at Scottish Rite Hospital made them feel sure of their abilities.
"By the end of the summer, I felt confident I could work there," Cooke said. "I was comfortable with doing the work from the nursing duties to the documentation."
Dahl said she also felt prepared for the work force.
"Scottish Rite Hospital enabled us to practice our hands-on skills and bedside manner, and it gave us the independence to think critically while providing care," she said. "It was an amazing experience that allowed us to grow as nurses and prepare for the work force that we are soon to face. The hospital focused on providing a friendly environment that circled around educating and preparing us to be nurses."
For Donnelli, the experience helped her discover an interest in neurology, and she will begin work in the neurology unit of Children's Medical Center of Dallas after graduation this month.
"Scottish Rite hospital was a very unique experience, and it reinforced the passion that I have for nursing and working with children," Donnelli said. "Rotating through the various areas of the hospital gave me an insight into many areas of pediatrics. I can't wait to return to spina bifida camp next June. I was so proud of the kids at camp and all that they had accomplished."
Williamson also talked about the camp when she recalled the summer experience.
"The best part about Camp John Mark was seeing the kids come out of their shell and interact with other children," she said. "This is a chance where each child can be just like everyone else. They were able to swim, ride horseback, camp outside, and experience activities they have never gotten the chance to do. I made several friends at the Scottish Rite Hospital in just a couple of months and hated to leave. You also really start to bond with the children who were in the hospital the whole time we were there. I can't wait to go back and visit over Christmas break and possibly work there in the near future."