About a dozen children learned the “bear necessities” of nursing at a Fuzzy Friends clinic hosted at the Newburgh Free Library early last month.
The event was run by Mount Saint Mary College Nursing students and faculty.
“Sometimes children get scared at a doctor’s office when they see the stethoscope or other unfamiliar equipment, so this allows them to get comfortable with healthcare and nursing professionals,” explained Linda Kelly, assistant professor of Nursing at the Mount.
The event was timely, coming just before the World Health Organization declared the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Mount’s School of Nursing recently donated about 7,000 disposable gloves to area hospitals like Montefiore St. Luke's Cornwall in Newburgh, N.Y., Good Samaritan Hospital in Suffern, N.Y., and Four Winds Hospital in Cross River, N.Y. All of the equipment came from the college’s School of Nursing supplies.
Likewise, the college’s Health Services office donated supplies to the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in Manhattan, which was recently converted into a 1,200-bed hospital. The supplies included two large cases of surgical masks and two other large boxes that included N95 masks, disposable gloves, face shields, and impermeable gowns.