'Aim for your sleeve' song meant to help cut germ spread

Linda Womack
Banner Staff Writer
Wednesday, Dec 09, 2009

AIM FOR YOUR SLEEVE -- Oak Grove Elementary's Sophie Fugate, from left, Rollins Austin, Avery Morrison, Cole Reyher and Shelby Hammonds cough into their sleeve as they have learned from the song "Aim for your Sleeve"
written by the school's nurse Misi Rollins Austin, to promote basic hygiene and hand washing.

This is the chorus of a song written by Misi Rollins Austin, clinical nurse manager for Bradley County Schools.

The song, "Aim for your Sleeve," encourages students to practice frequent hand washing and basic hygiene to prevent spreading flu and other common seasonal illnesses.

"The song encourages the kids to cough and sneeze into their arm instead of their hands, because hand washing is not always available and germs can be spread so easily," said Austin.

Since the song is fun for the students, it is better retained, according to the Austin.

"It's very age appropriate and it's fun. After coming up with this song and teaching the kids, we saw results very fast. It really works," she said.

Austin is also the school nurse at Oak Grove Elementary School. After writing the song, she created a DVD of the song performed by students at Oak Grove Elementary. When performed, the song is sung to the tune from the original "Addams Family" television show.

During the fall, Austin submitted a copy of the "Aim for your Sleeve" video to the Tennessee Association of School Nurses.

"They contacted me and asked me to come to the T.A.S.N. fall conference to present the video," said Austin.

Austin said after the conference, she was overwhelmed by requests for the DVD from school nurses all over the state.

"I brought 25 copies of the video to the conference with me. When I left I didn't have any copies and I had a whole list of e-mails to send the information about it to," said Austin.

When asked how she feels about her health-promoting song being used across schools state-wide Austin said, "I'm proud of it but I'm most proud that it is working and tthe kids remember it."

According to Austin, there have been 25,000 recorded student visits to a school nurse in Bradley County Schools in four months. Austin said there were a few more than 50,000 school nurse visits for the entire 2008 - 2009 school year.

"We are already seeing half the students we saw last year, and we're not even half way into the school year," said Austin.

Austin said she hopes the song can remind students to be more health conscious and help cut down the number of unhealthy students.

For more information about the song, contact Austin at Oak Grove Elementary at 478-8812. To view the "Aim for your Sleeve" video, log on to www3.bradleyschools.org.