Our Carroll nursing students are not just involved with their studies but are actively engaged in our campus and the local community.
Nursing Activities
Nursing White Coat and Hand Blessing Ceremony
The nursing department hosts this annual ceremony at the beginning of the fall semester. The White Coat Ceremony is a rite of passage to emphasize the importance of compassionate patient care at the very start of training. Undergraduate nursing students are invited to recite an oath to dedicate themselves to providing the highest quality care and services to all clients. Students wear their embroidered white nursing coats during the ceremony and receive a Keeping Healthcare Human pin from The Arnold P. Gold Foundation to remind them of how important compassion, caring, and humanism are to the healing of their clients. Additionally, each nursing student has their hands blessed by the nursing faculty to symbolize the healing of human touch as nurses.
SIGMA
The Zeta Upsilon Chapter of Sigma was formed through the joint efforts of the nursing faculty at Carroll College and Montana State University School of Nursing to encourage and recognize superior scholarship and/or leadership achievement in nursing at either the undergraduate or graduate level in the state of Montana. Sigma is an international community of nurses, dedicated to the advancement of knowledge, teaching, learning, and service through the cultivation of communities of practice, education, and research.
The high percentage of nursing students who are invited to join Sigma is indicative of the strong academic success and leadership we have seen in the Carroll nursing students. Students in the traditional and accelerated nursing tracks are considered for eligibility once they have completed at least 50% of the nursing curriculum. Induction ceremonies are held twice a year on a rotating basis on both the Carroll College and Montana State University campuses. At these induction ceremonies, students learn about the privileges and responsibilities that come with membership in this international nursing society and receive an honors cord as a symbol of their achievement and membership.
Sigma encourages students to perform a philanthropy project each year. In recent years, Carroll’s Sigma members have helped with the End of Year Free Market recycling event on campus, collected food for the local food share, provided education on sexual assault and healthy boundaries, engaged in outreach to elders, and donated blood during the pandemic, created valentines for hospitalized veterans at VA Montana Healthcare, collected supplies to donate to a Montana medical mission which traveled to Africa, gathered warm clothing and blankets for the local homeless shelter, and conducted a drive for new stuffed animals for preemies in the Neonatal Intensive Care in Missoula, Montana and for policeman and fireman to give to children in various situations in Helena, Montana.
CCSNA
The Carroll College Student Nurses’ Association is the college chapter for the state and national Student Nurses’ Association. CCSNA brings students together to help further the growth of nursing, providing opportunities for education, experience, service, and fellowship. Attendance at state and national conventions allows students to have an active voice in the future of nursing. CCSNA is involved with a variety of campus and community events and projects. Expand the sections below to read more.
Our student nurses from the Carroll College Student Nurses’ Association (CCSNA) collected items throughout late January and early February to make 60 hygiene kits fully stocked with soap, deodorant, washcloths, socks, combs, hand sanitizer, reusable masks, and so much more. The kits were donated to God’s Love Shelter in Helena.
The Carroll College Student Nurses Association is doing their part to give back to the Helena community. Each year the Carroll College Student Nurses Association, or CCSNA, holds a Christmas gift drive for Shodair Children's Hospital, a residential psychiatric treatment center that is one of their nursing clinical sites. CCSNA tries to collect as many items (clothing and toys) as possible for the children and adolescents in the hospital.
CCSNA has hosted “baby showers” in previous years in the nursing lab with a demonstration "live" birth with Noelle, the birthing mannequin. CCSNA provides refreshments, baby shower games and prizes, and asks attendees to bring items such as diapers, onesies, binkies, etc. to donate to the local Florence Crittenton Home that helps pregnant and parenting teens.
CCSNA encourages self-care and organizes fun activities such as cookie making and ice cream socials. Another way to deal with stress is through putting others first and students enjoy giving back to the community through activities such as tying blankets for elders and volunteering at different places in the community, including God’s Love Homeless Shelter and various nursing homes. CCSNA students also volunteer and participate in events supporting Alzheimer’s Awareness, Mental Health (NAMI), and Suicide Prevention.
CCSNA brings in speakers, including from the local hospital, to guide student nurses on how to successfully interview for jobs.
CCSNA organizes mentor groups to bring together nursing students at various levels of the program to support each other, especially the newest nursing students, and hosts events to bring mentor groups together for fun and fellowship.
CCSNA-designed nursing t-shirts and sweatshirts are worn with pride by nursing students, faculty and alumni. The group usually offers a shirt sale annually.
CCSNA volunteers enjoyed helping inspire middle school students interested in nursing at the annual STEM event held at the college in February.
CCSNA has set up a booth at various campus and community activities offering blood pressure readings. Upperclassman are happy to teach younger students if they don’t know how to take a blood pressure yet.
Students love to stop by the hospitality cart in the nursing office for a cup of tea or some goodies and many of these treats are provided by CCSNA.
CCSNA coordinates a thank you breakfast for nursing department faculty and staff at the end of the semester.