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UNMC College of Nursing students, Kaitlin Klotz, far left, and Angela Fowler, far right, with Doris Guerrero, second from left, and Erika Boccanegra, who each wear dresses collected by the nursing students. |
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UNMC College of Nursing students, Kaitlin Klotz, left, and Angela Fowler, right, and South High School nurse, Maryiln Rickley, show off the rack of donated dresses. |
The two were working with school nurse, Maryiln Rickley, for their community health nursing class, when they learned about a small collection of prom dresses Rickley has collected over the years to help students go to prom. Some students and their parents cannot afford dressy attire for prom.
Klotz and Fowler remembered what prom meant to them as high school students and decided to jump in with both feet. Through a dress drive they organized at the college and the UNMC Physicians clinic at Summit Plaza in Bellevue, about 65 dresses have been donated so far, which means more girls at South can attend prom who might not otherwise attend.
“It’s assumed that your parents would be buying your dress, but not all students have that option. Social needs are as important as other needs,” Klotz said. “A lot of the girls can’t afford dresses. People hang on to prom dresses for no reason but never really wear them again. This is a way for students to get to go to prom or homecoming.”
Doris Guerrero, senior at South High School, has already chosen the dress she wants to wear.
“Senior prom is the last hurrah before everyone goes their separate ways,” Guerrero said. “I think everyone wants to look nice and feel pretty. Not everyone has the money to buy a new dress.”
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“I think it was fabulous,” Fowler said. “Social functions are very important to the students.”
“One girl was super excited and is already looking forward to prom in the spring,” Klotz said. “It was neat to be able to give someone the chance to attend.”
For South High senior, Tiffany Baier, going to prom is a big deal. “It’s the biggest thing for a senior. You go and have fun and it’s a memory of high school.”
South High School Principal Cara Riggs said the dress collection removes obsticles for students who want to partake in one of the seminal events of their high school experience.
“‘I have nothing to wear,’ or ‘I can’t afford a new dress’ should never be the reason why our students don’t participate in school activities like the homecoming or prom dances,” Riggs said. “This is such an exciting way to insure that all of our kids can have the memory of a formal school dance.”
Katherine Kaiser Ph.D., an associate professor in the UNMC College of Nursing who teaches community health nursing, said part of the skills needed in public/community health nursing is to be able to “nurse a population” by bringing together clinical skills with many others such as working with non-health population needs as well.
“Recognizing the need for the prom dresses helped the members of South High community see that the nursing students really cared about their unique community and wanted to find ways to connect with them as people and not just a clinical site,” Dr. Kaiser said. “The nursing students learned that good health depends, not just on health care, but on the interaction of the individual, with the community and that being able to participate fully in school activities contributes to good health overall.”
Klotz said she will never forget the project.
“This was a clinical experience, but it came out way more for us,” Klotz said. “It was pretty moving to know you can make a difference as a student nurse.”
Klotz and Fowler also were able to get a new coat for a male student who had none. The students worked with Casual Male XL where employees used their own money to buy the student a coat.