Recruitment into Nursing Resource Manual
Preschool Students (age 2-4 years old)

Focus:

Nurses care for people.
Nurses help keep you healthy. How nurses help keep people healthy.
Exploring healthy living habits like hand washing.

Suggested activities:

1. Start with telling a story, e.g. "What is Claude doing?" Claude, a dog, stays home from playing with his other animal friends so he can keep Sam, his owner, company. Make an analogy between Claude and nurses taking care of people. Talk about children who are sick and must stay home from school. Who takes care of them? How does it feel to be sick? You may wish to use other books for the story or a character in a book, TV or movie.
   
   
2. Show how to wash hands -- You may wish to use "glow bug" to facilitate.
   
   
3. Ask, "Where have you seen nurses?" Emphasize that nurses' care for the sick person and the well person. Avoid the discussion of immunization and "shots". Explore types of settings nurses are employed in:
   • Schools
   • Doctor's Offices
   • Outpatient Areas
   • Hospitals
     
     
4. Use the MLN coloring book ($1.50/each) -- Individual pages may be copied a class use. Or, download the Make a Difference coloring pages. Use the pages to stimulate questions and observations.
   
   
5. Play nurse and show caring activities -- Let kids play with stethoscopes, Band-Aids and other small items.
   
   
6. Offer a Teddy Bear Clinic -- Each child can bring a stuffed animal for a health check-up. Take the height, weight and vital signs. Ask how their bear is -- how are they doing? Let the kid's imaginations run with it.
   
   
7. Review body parts -- Use an anatomical doll or pictures and charts. Help them see what is inside of them. This part should be more like a show and tell for the little ones. "Where is this? Show me."
   
   
8. Dress like Florence Nightingale -- Talk about the beginning of nursing as a profession and why education is so important. Talk about Flo's contributions. Pick other great nursing figures of the past.
   
   
9. For all activities, give each child a certificate that says "You are a Nurse Helper."

Supplies:

Nurse kits for play equipment
"You are a Nurse Helper" Certificates from MLN
Box of colorful Band-Aids
Stickers ("Future Nurses")
Dolls and stuffed animals
Surgical caps, masks and booties to dress up as nurses.
Lab coat for the speaker to wear over their street clothes.

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