When your child is hospitalized, he or she may see many different types of clinicians. One type of health professional who may visit your child is a student nurse from the Bon Secours Memorial School of Nursing. Occasionally, student nurses accompany the pediatric nurses and physicians in the pediatric unit. Bon Secours St. Mary's Hospital is not a teaching hospital; our nursing students visit pediatric patients as part of a class called Nursing Care of Children and Families. You can feel confident that your child's care is always in the experienced hands of our board-certified pediatricians, pediatric subspecialists, and nurses.

Student nurses are assigned to participate in your child's care only with your permission. Your child's pediatric nurses and the faculty of Bon Secours Memorial School of Nursing supervise the students as they visit your child. The student nurses provide one-on-one nursing care to your child for an entire shift. These students have had considerable clinical experience and are nearly finished with nursing school. In fact, the students in Bon Secours Memorial School of Nursing programs begin working in hospitals and with patients during their very first semester. Early and continuous student involvement with patients is part of what sets our program apart from other local programs.

The nursing students from Bon Secours Memorial School of Nursing help deliver the best care possible and pay close attention to your child's needs to make sure he or she is comfortable during a stay in the hospital. Our nurses are taught compassion and gentleness when it comes to treating pediatric patients and follow the guiding mission of alleviating human suffering. During their visit with your child, these nurses are learning to build trust with children and families to become better nurses when they begin practicing.