Bay Area nursing students write kids 'playbook' about coronavirus

 In San Jose, a group of nursing students has created a book designed to teach kids about COVID-19 in a fun and easy to digest way. 

Hot off the presses are 2,800 copies of the COVID-19 Activity Playbook written by the students from San Francisco State and San Jose State universities.

The book is now being distributed to hundreds of families.

The authors’ hope is that the book takes the very serious topic of coronavirus and makes it manageable for kids.

"For us to be able to give them an activity to learn and make it fun and less scary," said Tina Tran, a nursing student at San Jose State.

Here information on symptoms and safety measures are packaged as games and coloring pages.

"Adding fun images and graphics and just fun activities that will keep the children engaged, that's the best way to ensure that they're getting this information, but that they're also retaining it and hopefully sharing it with their entire family as well," said Elaine Pham, who attends San Francisco State.

And that will be key. 

The nursing students created the book while interning for the Community Health Partnership. The non-profit healthcare provider sees this as a valuable way to reach multiple generations.

"Many of our patients, English is not their primary language. So by having the children who are growing up in these communities who are speaking English, learning about this first hand, they can then relay some of this information to their families," said Jesse Tarango, of Community Health Partnership.

Ultimately, the women would like to translate the book into other languages too, in the hopes of reaching more people more easily.

"A lot of our group grew up being bilingual, translating for our parents. so we know how difficult that relaying information can be," said Tran.

With internet access hard to come by in some neighborhoods, the women figured printed pages would be best. The books, already getting lots of buzz, will be distributed through health clinics and by outreach workers.

"It really shows that small steps can make big impacts in the community," said Pham.

The group is already planning a sequel to their children's book. This one will be about understanding the COVID vaccine.