Kelley Huelle is the recipient of the Bachelor of Science in Nursing Outstanding Student Project for the graduating class of Summer, 2015. In the BSN program, students are provided the opportunity to become acquainted with the nurse’s role in the community through our Community Nursing course. During this course and practicum experience, students assess their local community and identify its health risks and needs. Building on their assessment, they select a community agency to work with and develop a health promotion project to implement.

During Kelley’s community assessment, she discovered that suicide is the fourth leading cause of death in her county of Pasco-Hernando. This ignited her to want to address the youth in her community of Lutz.

For her practicum experience, she worked with the middle school youth that attend Great Family Church’s youth group. She decided to tackle the subject of suicide prevention for her health promotion project.

With the approval of her agency, she developed a presentation based upon the ACT model, from the organization Screening for Mental Health, Incorporated. The ACT model (Acknowledge, Care & Tell) deals with suicide prevention and education.

This student’s initial project presentation was to 40 members of the Great Family Church youth group. Her talk was so successful that she was asked to present at the church’s Summer Camp called CLASH. This time, she presented to about 200 teenagers. In addition to the group talk, she spoke to some of her audience one-on-one afterwards.

The topic of teen suicide is both incredibly important, and difficult to discuss. With the enactment of this project, this student not only made an impact on her community, she proudly represented St. Petersburg College’s BSN program and the nursing profession.