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A P R O G R A M O F B U S I N E S S W E S T & H E A L T H C A R E N E W S
“I want them
to be able to
see the bigger
picture and
look for the
best outcomes
and really be
ethical nurses,
challenge the
system.”
Outside the College Walls
Bertheaud’s impact extends well beyond the walls of Elms College;
she has participated in service trips outside the U.S. and regularly
teaches parents in the local community about any number of issues,
often employing medical simulation ‘babies’ from the college’s
expansive collection of lifelike sims.
“In the community, we can go in and teach a group of parents
how easy it is to get shaken baby syndrome. And then we have a
fetal alcohol syndrome baby [sim], and we can talk about those
characteristics compared to a normal baby and what that looks like.
And we can talk about brain development.”
She involves students in community health as well. “Last year, I
had 86 students in 20 different placements. We were in high schools
and Head Start and Square One, and I’ve been to Roca, you name it.
If they let me in and it’s challenging, I’m like, ‘oh, I’ll put a student
there.’ I have students at the jail. I bring in six students, and we do
that two days a week.
“I’m in the community, and we’re doing teaching at senior citizen
centers, we’ll do high blood pressure screenings, we’ll do healthy
eating and sleeping for older people, which is a problem, fall
prevention, you name it.”
As for her mental health focus, not many students were choosing
that field as their entry into nursing, “but now I’m seeing a lot more.
Especially after COVID, people have realized that mental health and
population health are two things that are really important. I think
students can be so focused on learning how to put in an IV and take
blood pressure that they forget that there are bigger things.”
For Bertheaud, teaching has been that bigger thing, in many ways.
“When you’re a bedside nurse, you’re affecting your patient. Or
maybe you’re precepting one nurse every couple months. But when
I’m teaching, I can affect 60 or 90 students in a semester. And then I
get to see them the next year and see how they’ve grown.
“I like to see them after they graduate,” she added. “I’m like, ‘oh
Andrea
Bertheaud
with some of
the medical
simulation
‘babies’
used to
demonstrate
everything
from fetal
alcohol
syndrome to
shaken baby
syndrome.
Staff Photo
my God, you’re going be somebody.’ The energy of a 20- or 30-year-
old is just so cool. They’re unstoppable.”
For never stopping until she found her place of greatest impact,
Andrea Bertheaud certainly earns the title of Healthcare Hero. BW
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