Bridge to Care: Inclusive Nurse Aide Program for Teens with Down Syndrome

December 3, 2025

Bridge to Care: Inclusive Nurse Aide Program for Teens with Down Syndrome – San Antonio Texas

Naomi Chavez | 2024

Abstract

This project provides a program specifically adapted to include teens with Down syndrome in the nurse aide program. Touring the health professions center consists of a tour of the simulation lab in which students view rooms that suggest a hospital environment. Curiosity leads to touching and seeing examples of care provided by current students. For each student, it is a course that offers hands-on training while developing academic awareness, increasing emotional and mental factors, and the art of compassion and patience as current students act as mentors. It opens the door to creativity, objectivity, and sensitivity for both. It provides a holistic framework for the individual, the family, friends, and the community. The project aspires to have an expected outcome of placing D.S. individuals in a long-term care facility. The project also hopes that D.S. individuals exhibit knowledge, skills, and an attitude associated with being a nurse aide. For the D.S. individual and their families, the expectation is that it will improve their quality of life and overall well-being, and they will become increasingly self-assured as healthcare team members. The project may also contribute to the eventual ability of a D.S. individual to acquire further nursing education and help fulfill shortages presently seen. As education for any individual begins by providing or starting with the basic concepts of understanding, according to age and intellectual level, the D.S. individual should be able to attain the title of nurse aide or caregiver. It also offers the potential to seek subsequent certifications through an adaptable program for Down syndrome students interested in healthcare.

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