Pink and blue balloons were everywhere. Gifts, a fantastic spread of great food, and smiling faces greeted everyone as they walked through the door. Excitement and electricity filled the air. Sounds like just your average baby shower, right? Except there was nothing average about the baby shower put on by Texas Tech nursing professor Linda Brice, RN, PhD, FNP, and two of her classes last Thursday. In conjunction with the March of Dimes Stork’s Nest Drive, Brice and her students helped raise almost $29,000 at the event to help raise awareness–and hopes–about the high rate of teenage pregnancy, STDs, and premature births in West Texas.

Stork’s Nest is quite simple: It’s a prenatal education program operated by the March of Dimes and the Zeta Phi Beta Sorority that offers incentives and encouragement for young women to keep their unborn babies on a healthy path. Soon-to-be mothers, who often struggle in lower-income environments, earn points for things such as signing up for the program, keeping doctor’s appointments, attending educational classes, and signing up for Medicaid. After the baby is born, they can still earn points for attending check-ups and getting immunizations. Then, with the points they’ve earned, they can “buy” baby supplies that they may not otherwise be able to afford.

“It’s a win-win situation,” Brice says.

Throughout the semester–within her community health class and her OB class–Brice’s students go out in the community and seek sponsors and donations for the baby shower. In February, they sent out 600 letters to businesses (car dealerships, banks, restaurants, etc.), organizations, and prominent individuals. Combined with the solicitations, the classes are spreading knowledge about Stork’s Nest and the issue of teenage pregnancy, along with the dangers of STDs and complicated and premature births.

Responses to the baby shower have grown each year. Now in its fifth year under Brice’s guidance, the program continues to soar, having raised $6,800, $12,700, $15,800, $20,600, and nearly $29,000 each year, respectively. The monetary rewards are just part of the program. Brice says her nursing students learn three other valuable lessons through the experience:

1. “It’s my way of teaching them about giving back to the community,” she says. “The community supports them in becoming a nurse . . . and it’s important for them to be good role models. And many of these students have never seen somebody in need. You can’t take care of the whole person lying in the hospital unless you know their background.”
2. The nursing students teach some of the education courses. “It gives students a perspective and it gives them an opportunity to hone their [clinical] skills,” Brice says. “And the teens (which many of the mothers are) like it because they are close in age. Talking to the students doesn’t make them feel so out of place.”
3. “It’s a fun thing,” Brice says. “I try to make learning experiences something fun, something they can sink their teeth into and feel good about afterwards.”

The fun part is also some of the items that get raffled and auctioned off at the shower to raise some additional funds. This year, donations included a basketball signed by Texas Tech men’s basketball coach Bobby Knight, a romantic dinner package, haircuts, and spa getaways.

“The students get very excited about it,” Brice says. “Over the last five years, over 1,300 students have helped in donating $85,000 worth of baby items.”

Brice says she thinks the unique program is just an example of the generosity given by nursing schools across the country. “I’m sure that every community has some special problem area that students probably get involved in,” she says. “It depends on what the faculty is passionate about.”

For Brice, in the foreseeable future, that passion will continue to be the community baby shower and the lessons it teaches her students.

“It’s very rewarding,” she says. “As long as I can keep it going, I will continue doing it.”

Editor’s note: For more information on the program, please contact Brice at Linda.brice@ttuhsc.edu.