Nursing student Lucinda Diaz (yellow shirt) and Amanda Zertuche (red shirt) from H-E-B discuss proper nutrition with the children.
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By Rosanne Fohn

On a recent Tuesday afternoon, 10 children from San Antonio’s West Side bit into juicy pineapple, crunched chocolate chip cookies and got a close-up look at a live lobster waving its claws during a tour of their neighborhood supermarket. As they walked the aisles, they learned about fruits and vegetables, the protein in seafood, how to read labels and other fine points of good nutrition.

The following week, more than 200 youngsters, including those from the supermarket shopping trip, worked up a healthy sweat at San Antonio’s Benavides Park. They competed in a tug-of-war, ran three-legged races and climbed their way through a moon-bounce obstacle course. The field day was the closing activity of an eight-week summer camp led by nursing students at the UT Health Science Center San Antonio.

“This is fun,” shouted one young boy as he turned a flip while climbing over an inflated vinyl wall in the moon bounce, as another boy struggled to make it over the top. Another youngster, Vincent Rodriguez, 10, said that he would miss the camp. “I love going to camp and playing with friends,” he said, noting that his favorite fruit is oranges.

For eight weeks this summer, nine students from the School of Nursing taught 300 children ages 6 to 14 about good nutrition, the value of exercise and how to make other healthy choices that could help them reduce their risk of obesity, diabetes, violence and teen pregnancy.

Girls from Good Samaritan Community Services get some help from UT Health Science Center nursing student Barbara Rokya Garcia Zuazua (second from left) with tug-of-war during field day at Benavides Park.

Healthy Choices for Kids
The summer program — Healthy Choices for Kids — is a collaboration with two community partners, Good Samaritan Community Services on San Antonio's West Side and Krueger Middle School in North East Independent School District. Two hundred children attended day camp at Good Samaritan, while 100 went to the program at Krueger. Both locations draw students from neighborhoods with high obesity rates, chronic illnesses and a lower income that often limits the family food budget.

“We are trying to reach the children early so that they can learn about good nutrition and exercise,” explained Adelita Cantu, Ph.D., M.S., RN, assistant professor in the Department of Family and Community Health Systems. Dr. Cantu started Healthy Choices for Kids four years ago as a summer elective. She guides the nursing students in writing a curriculum based on the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s MyPlate nutritional program, which they adapt and teach to the children each summer.

“What we are hoping is that the children will take home this new knowledge that is presented in a fun way and share it with their parents. They can show their parents how to make healthier snacks at home, how to read labels at the grocery store and that getting outside for some exercise is fun,” Dr. Cantu said.

Muévete USA
This summer, nine additional Health Science Center nursing students worked in the summer programs through a national pilot program sponsored by the National Association of Hispanic Nurses (NAHN) and the Coca-Cola Foundation called Muévete USA. Led by Health Science Center nursing faculty member Norma Martinez Rogers, Ph.D., RN, FAAN, professor in the Department of Family and Community Health Systems, the program parallels first lady Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move! Campaign and incorporates nurse-mentoring concepts first piloted in the School of Nursing.

“Through Muévete, we are placing an ideal population, our nursing students, is a position of leadership in the community to be role models for children to teach them about healthy eating and activity,” Dr. Rogers said. In addition to the nine students who helped with the camp, three others helped organize the lesson plans before they graduated in May. Muévete is also being conducted by NAHN student nurses in Los Angeles, Phoenix, Chicago and Brownsville, Texas. Dr. Rogers recently served as president of NAHN and is known as an expert in nurse mentoring programs.

Theresa Villarreal, M.S.N., RN, a clinical instructor in the School of Nursing, said, “In Muévete we identified 35 children at higher risk of obesity, social isolation and a sedentary lifestyle. They went on a few extra field trips and got more individual attention than the larger group. Boosting their self esteem is important in helping them avoid the social isolation that sometimes comes with obesity and can help prevent drug use and other unhealthy behaviors in the future.”

Nursing student Delia Silvas explained some of the specialized lessons in the Healthy Choices curriculum. “One of the activities we did was to show them how much sugar is in a can of soda. We set up a scale and started spooning on the sugar and we kept going and going. The kids said, ‘Miss, is that really how much sugar a can of soda has?’

“We also taught them about the different organ systems — the cardiovascular system, digestive system and urinary system — and we taught them that if you don’t eat well you may have suffering in some of these areas of your body,” Silvas said.

Nursing students develop many new skills
Herlinda Zamora, M.S.N., RN, also a clinical instructor in the School of Nursing, added that through these two complementary programs, both groups of nursing students are developing leadership, education and scholarship, which will help them become the future leaders in nursing. “It’s neat to hear them saying that now they know how to make lessons plans and how to adapt activities for different age groups. We hope that one day some of them will decide to replace some of us in the nursing classroom,” she said.

Nursing student Emiko Dudley explained, "Healthy Choices for Kids has given me a great chance to give back to our community, teach valuable lessons to children who are in need and learn from those around me. As a future health care provider, recognizing the need to determine what a child or adult understands and knows about 'healthy' or 'nutritious' has enabled me to determine what to teach them.

"This 'needs determination' will be an essential aspect of any patient teaching I undertake in the future, no matter the setting or subject. I am thankful I learned it now," Dudley said. "Overall, the children have taught me that all children flourish with positive attention and appreciate when an adult takes the time to listen to them. I have truly enjoyed the children at Good Samaritan Center this summer."