TWU Nursing Students Learning From Ebola Crisis

It seems few future health care workers are backing down in fear of illnesses like Ebola.

Texas Woman’s University reports strong interest from current and potential students in their nursing program.

"It's kind of just part of the lifestyle of a nurse, I guess,” said sophomore Mathew Hood, who’s studying to be an emergency room nurse. "

Like many TWU students, Hood plans to study at the school’s Dallas campus during his upper-level years.

Vice President for Enrollment Services Gary Ray said the school has about 3,100 students studying nursing, about 25 percent of the student body, and they don’t anticipate that number dropping from this or any viral incident.

"We don't see any hesitation from prospective students coming up to the fair booth and saying, 'do you have nursing?'" said Ray. "They want to help people, they want to serve, they want to help people to get well."

The university has long worked with Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas as a site for student clinical studies; the same hospital where nurses Amber Vinson and Nina Pham contracted the illness.

During the height of that situation, students studying at the hospital were transferred to other hospitals to help cut any non-essential staff from the grounds.

TWU leaders say that relationship remains strong, though and many student nurses like Hood say they look forward to the opportunity to step into the hospital and learn from the staff that now knows Ebola very well.

"It's a teachable moment,” said TWU Communications Director Amanda Simpson.

Simpson said the school’s professors are also teaching on the Ebola topic and keeping up with the ever-evolving guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on how to handle the illness.

For TWU, though, the big focus isn’t the virus, but keeping the nurses safe from any sort of communicable virus while working.

"Emphasizing the protection and how they cannot be effective in practice unless they take care of themselves first,” said Simpson.

They’re also teaching the students to be teachers themselves and help others learn the true facts about Ebola.

"It's come up a lot,” said Hood. “It's definitely the topic of discussion now days."

Hood said he’s already taken a lot of questions from family and friends, especially since he studies so close to Dallas.

"Like, 'are you terrified? Are you going to ditch out on nursing altogether?' And I always tell them ;no,'" he said with a laugh. "By the time I get out of school, I don't think it'll be Ebola, it'll be something else; the dangerous thing at the time. You've just got to be prepared for anything."
 

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