THE
SPRINGHILLIAN
December 5, 2014
Volume 99 Issue 10
Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam
Nursing Department Resurrects the Student Nursing Association By Ben Fleming Reporter
Photo by Ben FLEMING
Photo courtesy of SHC Nursing Department
The Spring Hill College Nursing division has brought back Student Nursing Association (SNA) and is trying to develop it for the future. The Student Nursing Association started in 2000 and has been on campus for a while, but has fallen through the cracks in the past couple of years because of the busy schedules nursing majors have. Last year, senior Mary Catherine Romero was president and started laying the groundwork to get the organization back together. This organization consists of student nurses, and you can be any grade level as long as you have an interest in the nursing field. The clubs organization’s advisors are Mrs. Joan Sands, who approached the department chair to get the group active again, and Dr. Martha Gibson. This organization is bigger than Spring Hill College; there are SNA groups all over the state. Sands says, “In the state of Alabama, there is an annual meeting in October, where we go and represent our little association.” She continued, “In 2004, our SNA won the Community Health Project Award at the Alabama Association of Nursing Students Convention held that year in Birmingham, Alabama.” According to Sands once you are in this group it feeds into the Alabama Nurses Association after you are a registered nurse. From there you may be able to have a more “politically active voice in D.C. regarding health care and other issues.” The goal of the SNA group at Spring Hill is to develop a better understanding of the nursing profession, as well as provide additional educational opportunities for student nurses through service and other activities. “As student nurses we deal with those things on a lower level, how to be an advocate for patients and to understand the nursing role and to develop identity as nurses, helping one another get through the next four years,” says Sands. One of the service activities that
See FROM THE COVER pg. 4