FALCONER – Nursing students from Jamestown Community College will have the opportunity to gain clinical experience thanks to the Falconer School District.

The district will allow for students to get hands-on experience in the field as a result of the cooperative effort.

This opportunity will be available to fourth semester nursing students at JCC in the spring semester, according to Temple Elementary School nurse Melissa Towne. Towne went to JCC herself and thus is somewhat familiar with the clinical experience, as she trained in Fredonia and Jamestown School Districts. This program will allow a greater range of experience for many soon-to-be nurses, as they receive most clinical experience in hospital settings, said Towne. Towne noted that this clinical experience will not only allow for these students to shadow working nurses, but will also allow them to perform assessments with direct supervision. The students will receive a total of 48 hours of time at the school over the span of three weeks, said Towne.

A major hope of this opportunity is to decrease the workplace anxiety for students that will soon be entering the workforce, noted Towne. Nurses often work long shifts or difficult hours, and perform life-saving work. Therefore, it is essential to ensure comfortability for these students to the greatest extent possible. The number of students participating in the program remains unknown at this time, according to Towne.

Towne noted the benefits of field training in the nursing career. Towne noted that field work within a school provides a great social experience, and allows nursing students to see first-hand social impacts on student health. Towne also pointed out that field work has the benefit of allowing students to use various knowledge that they have learned in school. One example of this Towne provided is the way in which students are able to utilize what they have learned about vital signs in field settings. The students will also be able to perform supervised health assessments, as previously mentioned. These health assessments will consist of doing basic checks, such as on the ears and throat, according to Towne. This will further apply the knowledge that the nursing students have learned to a real scenario.

Towne expressed incredible gratitude to be able to aid in providing this experience to students, especially since it was once provided to her as a JCC student. This type of community cooperation, in this case being between schools, goes so far in allowing more resources and opportunities to better the knowledge and experience of so many students.