Fifth and sixth graders from Zavala Elementary School will learn about how germs can spread and the value of exercise and will watch blood pressure and heart rates being monitored on mannequins during a Jan. 29 event at The University of Texas at Austin School of Nursing.
The program, called the Longhorn School Bus, will be held from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the School of Nursing, 1700 Red River St. Longhorn School Bus won the National Student Nurses Association’s best breakthrough to nursing project two years ago.
The children will rotate through various activities on good nutrition and the importance of exercise. They will learn how to properly wash their hands and see how germs can spread. They also will find out about the courses needed to prepare for a career in health care.
A special treat for the children is the school’s Simulation Lab. A “Sim Man,” a computer-driven mannequin, will pose as a healthy patient. The students will learn how to take his pulse, listen to his lungs, take his blood pressure and interview him about how he is feeling.
Eight computerized simulation mannequins, including a newborn infant and a birthing mother, have software that provide physiologic responses such as change in heart rate, blood pressure, heart tones, murmurs, breath sounds, bowel sounds and full vocalizations.
The children also will tour the school’s skills laboratory, an environment where students practice and demonstrate nursing skills. The skills area has three rooms with six patient units that include equipment such as intravenous (IV) poles, simulated oxygen and suction. Here the nursing students use task trainers, which represent body parts, to practice starting IVs or giving immunizations.
