Troy University nursing students recently hosted Public Health Day, a student-coordinated event held in Jones Hall designed to introduce high school students to the world of health care and public health.

Around 50 students from the Troy-Pike Center for Technology attended the event, which featured a variety of interactive stations on vital signs and blood pressure, hand washing, CPR, fall prevention and overdose awareness. They also heard from Dr. Johna Cotton, Director of the Southeastern District of the Alabama Department of Public Health, about the many career paths in healthcare. 

Fifth-year nursing student Anna Rushing of Troy said the event was a fun and rewarding way to share what she’s learned throughout her program.

“It’s been a really good event for the students to learn about health and to really teach them what to know about healthcare,” she said. “It was good to see that most of the students already knew about vital signs and what they are. They were very interactive and asked questions, and that was really fun.”

Rushing said the experience reminded her of what she enjoys most about the nursing profession.

“I love nursing, but something I’ve learned about myself over the last two and a half years is that I also love teaching,” she said. “It’s been really fun to teach young students the basics of healthcare and answer their questions about nursing and college life in general.”

Fellow fifth-year nursing student Ree Heard of Huntsville, Alabama said she hoped the event opened students’ eyes to the wide variety of careers available in the healthcare field.

“I really want students to take away the knowledge that there are more occupations in the health field than just nursing,” she said. “When I was in high school, all I heard about was nursing, so I was very glad Dr. Cotton came from the health department to talk about different pathways. There are so many ways to give back to your community.”

For Vivian Holland, a senior at Pike County High School, the day offered both inspiration and hands-on learning.

“I’m interested in the medical field, and I want to become an occupational therapist because my niece was born with a hearing disability and had a lot of speech and OT therapies,” Holland said. “I got to watch her appointments, and it was so cool to see her transformation.”

From CPR practice to virtual reality simulations, Holland said the event strengthened her desire to pursue her goals.

“Today was so fun. We learned about CPR, how to treat burns and other wounds and even got to use virtual reality glasses to act out a simulation,” she said. “Today definitely influenced me to keep going and pursue my goal.”

The School of Nursing is housed in the College of Health Sciences. For more information about the college and its programs, click here.