Eight AUCON students selected for competitive pediatric program

Eight undergraduate students from Auburn’s College of Nursing are receiving extensive hands-on clinical experience in pediatric healthcare this summer as part of Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta’s Pediatric Elective Program, or PEP.

                The competitive program is a unique partnership between CHOA and select Nursing programs in the southeast and is limited to 50 students each summer. Auburn’s College of Nursing is the only nursing program in Alabama selected to participate.

                PEP provides an opportunity for students to immerse themselves in a pediatric practicum-like experience while earning three credit hours toward their degree, as well as a $3,000 scholarship. The eight-week program began June 8 and runs through July 31. Students work as patient care technicians to help them acclimate to the hospital environment throughout the first four weeks of the program. During the program’s second half, students shift into a one-on-one clinical preceptorship with a CHOA registered nurse, attending weekly specialized classes on topics like NG tubes, pediatric vitals, and emergency cart procedures.

                Auburn students participating in the program are jointly enrolled in an independent study course led by Erin Thornton, AUCON Assistant Clinical Professor, and receive credit for a specialty course within their nursing curriculum.

                “This program is such a unique and rewarding opportunity for our students to be able to completely immerse themselves into the clinical setting, caring for the most vulnerable clients, prior to graduation,” Thornton said. “All students selected for this program have a passion to become a pediatric nurse after graduation and with this program, they are allowed into such sacred spaces with children needing sometimes the highest level of care. They receive experience in caring for children with a wide range of healthcare needs including those recovering from open heart surgery, or a viral illness, to children undergoing chemotherapy, infusions, and procedures that require intensive care, as well as those who are born prematurely and are in the hospital for extended periods of time.”

                This summer AUCON students have been placed within different hospital units at either Scottish Rite Children’s Hospital or Arthur M. Blank Hospital for the duration of the program.

                Students applied for PEP in November and were selected by CHOA in March. AUCON students participating this summer include third-semester cohort students Elena Ryerson, Caroline Owen, Grace Haggerty, Caylen Tallis, and Emma Nicolosi, as well as fourth semester cohort students Anna Kate Mitchell, Lillian Frost, and Catherine Pearson.

“No matter what unit our students are able to be a part of, or the lives they encounter in this program, I can say proudly that all of them walk away with such a profound respect for the nursing profession, and they are gaining invaluable skills to be great in their future specialty of pediatric nursing,” Thornton said.