Wallace State Community College’s Department of Nursing Education welcomed the first of more than 1,000 students to its annual Let’s Pretend Hospital Tuesday, Nov. 5 when groups of first graders converged on the School of Nursing and Center for Science.
More than a half dozen current Wallace State nursing students have come full circle with Let’s Pretend Hospital, as they attended the event as first graders. Let’s Pretend Hospital began in 2008 occurring every year since, except during the pandemic in 2020.
This was fourth-semester nursing student Destiny Anders third time participating in Let’s Pretend Hospital. She’s twice participated as a student at Wallace State, but her first time was as a first grader.
“All the kids, they just get so excited,” Anders, a Fairview native, said. “It was great just getting to be around the kiddos. I really did enjoy it.”
Anders said she is leaning towards pediatrics as her specialty, so getting to be around younger children is helpful.
Last year, Anders worked in the nutrition room. This year she was part of the welcoming committee.
“We’re going to be taking them around to each room and getting to stay with each group instead of only getting to be with them a little bit, so I like that,” she said.
Students who come to Let’s Pretend Hospital rotate between eight different stations, but first they are welcomed by a group of superheroes and Disney princesses and other students like Anders, who put a paper bracelet around their wrists.
The rooms the students visit are focused on various subjects regarding health and safety and experiences within the medical realm. Each room is themed to engage the students in activities held in them.
The Health and Safety room has a Minecraft theme and takes students to different stations that teach them about fire safety, the importance of wearing seat belts, drug safety and more.
Other rooms include an X-Ray room featuring characters from Frozen, the Jungle Room where they learn what happens if they have to stay overnight in the hospital, an emergency room where they help the Grinch feel better, an operating room with an Operation game theme, and the germ room where they learn the importance of washing their hands. The students also get to visit with staff from the Hanceville Fire and Rescue.
Anders said she remembers learning how to stop, drop and roll and about seat belt safety when she was a first grader. She said she hopes the student going through Let’s Pretend Hospital this week will take at least one lesson with them that will help them in the future.
According to Good Hope Elementary first-grade teacher Deidra Wix, the students do take the lessons back with them. The teachers give the students lessons in subjects such as fire safety and community health before the visit to Wallace State and follow up afterward.
“When we get back, we like to journal about it and talk about some of their favorite things and things that they’ve learned,” Wix, who has been a teacher for 10 years, said.
“They love the germs,” Wix added of one of the favorite rooms students visit. “That’s very big at school. We always talk about germs. But when they come here and see it under the black light and see like they are everywhere, and we don’t realize it. I think the germ room is always a big hit.”