Fighting teen pregnancy rates in Williams

Alena George decided to become a nurse because she wanted to help people, and now she is helping an entire town, while still a student.

George, along with Northern Arizona University School of Nursing students Marc Coffey Creek and William Poulson, teamed up for a senior public health nursing service project requiring students to assess a community's health care needs and work with it to promote good health.

When evaluating health issues in Williams, the team discovered higher than usual teen pregnancy rates in the community.

"The topic we selected was sex education in the schools," George said. "The school was ready to implement a program but had not started to investigate the options yet."

To assess the community, the team interviewed local officials, conducted surveys, analyzed census data and then presented its findings to community organizations.

George said the team identified what constitutes successful sex education programs, assessed existing sex education programs in the country and presented a modified one for the Williams School District to consider.

"Our intent was to partner with the school so that the school could get moving on the selection and implementation project much sooner than if they had to investigate these issues themselves," George said.

They also informed the school district about additional government and private organizations to assist it in bringing down the town's teen pregnancy rates.

In a letter thanking the School of Nursing, Beth Britton, director of the Williams Alliance Against Drug Abuse said, "The information we received from NAU was immediately used at multiple levels within the community."

The alliance mission includes bringing community resources together to deliver services and activities.

"The students' health knowledge and high level of professionalism promoted an extraordinary level of trust between them and the Williams' community," said Caroline Ellermann, assistant professor of nursing. "The community acted on very solid information provided by the students to promote health in their teen population. This successful class process demonstrates the contribution NAU students can make when partnering with the community within a service learning framework."

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