Our Lady of the Holy Souls sixth graders Elizabeth Meadors (center) and Emma Stewart Kohler use their stethoscopes on a realistic training dummy while C.J. Springer (left) awaits his turn. In a three-hour field trip to CHI St. Vincent Infirmary in Little Rock, students also learned about patient monitoring, germ containment and hospital operations. (Dwain Hebda photo)

Holy Souls sixth-grade classmates consult the periodic table of the elements during an exercise in the CHI St. Vincent Infirmary pharmacy. They are Thomas Fitz (left), Henry Handley, Olivia Napier and Hattie Cooper. (Dwain Hebda photo)

Holy Souls students keep a close eye on the syringe wielded by Danny Wooley of St. Vincent Infirmary as he demonstrates how pharmacists produce intravenous medication. (Dwain Hebda photo)

Hattie Cooper counts her Skittles “pills” as part of an exercise in the pharmacy. Cooper’s class from Our Lady of the Holy Souls School toured St. Vincent Infirmary in Little Rock Oct. 16. (Dwain Hebda photo)

Team members Tommy Finnegan (left), Emily Van Ecko, Albert Issac and Nattie Pettit celebrate winning a prescription-filling race as part of the middle schoolers’ tour of CHI St. Vincent Infirmary in Little Rock. (Dwain Hebda photo)

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Kids get taste of health care work in field trip

Little Rock sixth graders try out nursing, pharmacy at CHI St. Vincent

Published: October 23, 2014

Photos by Dwain Hebda

Dwain Hebda

Shailey Jackson locates a training dummy’s heartbeat during a tour of the patient simulation lab at CHI St. Vincent Infirmary. Students learned about locating a pulse, taking a blood pressure reading and monitoring other vital signs.

Dwain Hebda

Students from Our Lady of the Holy Souls School in Little Rock got a first-hand look at hospital operations during a two-day mini-camp hosted by CHI St. Vincent Infirmary. Two groups of Holy Souls sixth graders took part during the mornings of Oct. 9 and Oct. 16.

The classes learned how nurses in training practice using SimMan, a patient simulator designed to deliver the most realistic training possible. Staff performed several simulations using SimMan, giving students insight into assessment and care of patients in the hospital setting. They also learned about working an automatic external defibrillator as these are found in many public settings, including schools.

The Holy Souls guests also toured the pharmacy, saw a demonstration of how intravenous medicines are created, raced each other in a game of “fill the prescription” using Skittles instead of pills, asked questions about nursing careers and did a handwashing exercise to illustrate one aspect of infection control.

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