"The whole point of being a nurse is community service."
Monday, Oct. 20, was a day off from school for Edmond high school students. But that didn’t stop a Francis Tuttle Technology Center Pre-Nursing class from getting some work done, anyway.
Students in Lauren VanOsdol’s nursing program volunteered their time at Skyline Urban Outreach, a food and resource center located on SE 15th Street in Oklahoma City. Though it was a decent drive down from their classroom at the Danforth Campus, the Francis Tuttle students spent the whole morning and early afternoon helping people get the food they need.
“In nursing, your work is to help people get better,” Kennedi Pittman, a Pre-Nursing student and Edmond Memorial High School junior, said. “And here, it’s the same thing. You are working to help people feel better or better themselves.”
Kennedi and her sister Skylar spent most of their day outside working in Skyline’s garden area. Rows of fresh vegetables – peppers, beans, peas, squash, leafy greens, and more ¬– are grown and harvested for Skyline patrons to make sure they have healthy food options.
“It’s peaceful and you get to give back to the community,” Skylar said. “And it’s just so friendly here.”
Inside, students unboxed grocery items and placed them on shelves. They also prepared care packages for homeless residents using non-perishable items and recycled t-shirts.
Prior to becoming a nursing instructor, VanOsdol worked as a nurse in hospitals for more than 20 years. She has first-hand knowledge that the work of healthcare professionals does not stop once a patient leaves the hospital.
“As a nurse, there were times when I had to send someone home knowing that they did not have the resources they would need to fully heal,” she said. “So I want our students help people have access to those resources. I want them to see for themselves the importance of helping in the community.”
Over the summer, VanOsdol was presented with the Carl Perkins Community Service Award for implementing community service into her program curriculum at the Oklahoma Association for Career and Technology Education (OkACTE) conference in Tulsa. Monday was an example of how she is passing along that legacy to her students.
Katelynn Elliott, a junior at Edmond North High School who plans to become a medic in a branch of the military, said acts of service are how she plans to get the most out of her nursing education.
“The whole point of being a nurse is community service,” she said. “I can do a lot with my nursing certification. But if I’m not out here to serve, there’s not a lot of use to the skills I’ve learned.”
The Pre-Nursing program is planning more community service opportunities during the rest of the school year, both in Edmond and the greater OKC metro.