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JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. – A group of nursing students at Milligan College collected 70 sets of pajamas for boys and girls undergoing treatment at Niswonger Children’s Hospital.
“These gifts will be given to children throughout the year,” said Marinda McConnell, Child Life Program manager for Mountain States Health Alliance. “Children, and their families, often times come here unexpectedly, and they aren’t prepared to spend the night. It’s nice for the children to put on something aside from a hospital gown.”
It took only two months for the students, along with Tammy Samples, a faculty nurse advisor with the Student Nurses Association at Milligan, to collect the pajama sets. Samples contacted McConnell, knowing that while gifts are appreciated, sometimes there are some needs that are greater than others.
“As students, we’re glad to get involved and help the community,” said nursing student Cynthia Colon-Rivera. “We just hope that the children enjoy these gifts.”
Added fellow nursing student Rachel Ingleby, “I just think if I were a kid, how important it would be to me to have cozy pajamas.”
Milligan’s Student Nurses Association has facilitated several similar drives to benefit the children’s hospital over the last five years. According to Samples, the group has contributed needed items to MSHA numerous times – Valentine’s Day, Easter, Christmas and more. Many of the student nurses involved have done clinical rotations at MSHA and see providing needed items for patients also as a means of ministering to them.