News
March 20, 2023

Taking Temperatures and Birthing Babies: Middle Schoolers Learn About Nursing

UVA Today
A Starr Hill Pathway middle school student listens to heart sounds through a stethoscope.
A middle schooler in the Starr Hill Pathways program learns how to detect heart sounds and assess for irregularities in the sim lab.

About 40 local middle school students a day learning about the School of Nursing as part of a program that introduces area teens to college environments.

The middle school students, part of the UVA Equity Center’s Starr Hill Pathways program, spent the day with about 20 undergraduate nursing students and faculty members to get an idea of what it would be like to study nursing in college.

The program is designed for Charlottesville-area seventh- and eighth-graders, including many who would be first-generation college students, to learn more about paths to college and what they could study once enrolled.

With support from faculty members Randy Jones, associate dean for partnerships, and RN to BSN program director Malinda Whitlow, other key organizers included simulation lab director Ryne Ackard, simulation educator Jennifer Gaines, simulation educator Samantha Hudgins, Compassionate Care Initiative assistant director Hannah Crosby, and professor Edie Barbero and her therapy dog Kenny.

Here are some photos of the event.

Starr Hill Pathways students learn how to tend a bleeding patient
Students learned how to tend a bleeding patient during one simulation.
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Starr Hill Pathways students practice taking one another's termperatures.
In another room, students practiced taking one another's temperatures. (Photo by Dan Addison)
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A Starr Hill Pathways student helps tend in a birthing simulation.
In one of the more dramatic moments of the day, a standardized patient actor birthed a simulated baby while middle school students pitched in with delivery. (Photo by Dan Addison)
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BSN student teaches a Starr Hill Pathways student how to tend a wound.
The high-fidelity experiences - with realistic blood, wounds, medical equipment, and scenarios - were meant to give students a true look at what a nursing career might involve.
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A therapy dog greets a nursing student at the Starr Hill Pathways program
Two therapy dogs even came to the event, including Kenny, the School's beloved canine owned by prof. Edie Barbero, and Ella, the School's facility dog, owned by prof. Tracy Kelly.
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President Ryan and Dean Baernholdt pose with nursing students at the Starr Hill Pathways event.
President Ryan, Dean Baernholdt and nursing students who helped out at the event posed for a photo at its end.
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