Student nurses engage with youth
Nursing students from UKZN empowered the Cato Crest youth at in outreach project recently.
UKZN’s second year nursing students reached out to 60 pupils from local schools recently, as part of their community engagement.
The students hosted the pupils from Mayville Primary and Mayville Secondary School at Cato Crest Library, with the aim of equipping and teaching them about the consequences of teenage pregnancy, substance abuse, HIV/AIDS, inter-generational relationships, personal hygiene as well as various HIV prevention methods, especially emphasising dual protection condom use.
Student nurse, Skye Lee Crouch, said the students had been working in the community since February where they started doing community assessments and identified community needs, through which they implemented this intervention.
She said educators from both schools agreed with the pupils’ discovery that alcohol abuse and teenage pregnancy were prevalent among children aged 13 to 16.
The 22 nursing students conducted various role plays, showcasing the different consequences of reckless behaviour. Student nurse, Berlin Ngwevu, taught the children about teenage pregnancy, substance abuse and inter-generational relationships (sugar daddies and sugar mamas). The play portrayed many aspects such as how being high can make one feel more confident, more sexual and can lead to people losing their inhibitions.
Through the role plays the learners were made aware of how dropping out of school can make unemployment very real. They were also made to realise how employers did not want to hire people with no education.
The students also promoted hygiene. They cleaned the pupils’ toilets and repainted these using paint that they bought from funds raised for this project.
They designed and printed A2 size posters that they donated to the schools with visual instructions on how to maintain hygiene.
