Nursing prospects get hands on insight at MUW

Nearly 200 juniors and seniors from 19 different high schools made their way to the MUW campus

COLUMBUS, Miss. (WCBI)- Mississippi University for Women is well known for its nursing program. Some high school students were able to get a closer look as the staff hosted its annual navigating to nursing program on Thursday.

Nearly 200 juniors and seniors from 19 different high schools made their way to the MUW campus. Nursing school faculty say they’ve held this program for years and it’s helped get the attention of prospective nursing students.

Brantley Carter is now a student at the W studying nursing, but just three years ago she was one of the high school students walking those halls.

“I do tell all of the students when they come through, yes I came here when I was in high school, you’ll do this, I love doing this, or I learned this. The facility is very nice, the skills are nice, and the teachers are always there to help even if I wasn’t a student here yet the mother-baby unit was honestly my favorite seeing a baby being born and hearing all the details is great,” said junior nursing student Brantley Carter.

Students spent about 15 minutes in different parts of the nursing building doing hands-on activities that the nursing staff feels will pique their interest even more.

“These opportunities include anything ranging from simulation to other interactive activities such as administering medications and exploring other interactive activities for speech and language pathology, and health and kinesiology,” said professor of nursing Dr. Mary Helen Ruffin.

She knows that it’s been a challenge to recruit and retain nurses, but she says programs like this help because it gives students a glimpse at what they can do.

“Right now, Mississippi is experiencing a nursing shortage this opportunity allows those students to come and explore those opportunities to see what type of field within nursing, they’d want to choose,” said Ruffin.

Dr. Ruffin says they plan to have an open house for more prospective students on March 24, 2023.

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