Student Projects Enhance Competency in Community-Based Nursing Practice

Abstract

Trends in healthcare delivery toward community-based care challenge nurse educators to design nursing curricula and learning experiences that prepare students for practice in community settings. The authors describe how faculty used student projects to enhance community learning experiences. The projects were designed to help students gain skill in the process of program design and evaluation and an appreciation and enthusiasm for community-based nursing practice.

A Student‐Directed Community Project to Support Sexually Abused Women Veterans Suffering from Post‐Traumatic Stress Disorder

“…For example, at Emory University, senior nursing students designed community projects in order to improve health care and health care delivery. These Senior Innovation Projects have included nutritional education for pregnant women, preparation of health education material for illiterate clients, and dissemination of health promotion information to parents and children at local shelters ( Ura & Moneyham, 1998). At the Intercollegiate Center for Nursing Education in Spokane, Washington, senior nursing students assessed the availability and use of services offered by collaborating health care agencies.…”

“…Many projects have had such a positive impact that they have become permanently instituted at the community health agency. Challenges to conducting a community assessment and project include: time constraints, expense, difficulty in identifying the agency and population to be served, inexperience in negotiation skills, failure of agencies to take student projects seriously, inaccessibility to agency data, and discontinuity in data collection when the projects span several semesters ( Barton, Smith, Brown, & Supples, 1993; Bayne et al, 1994; Bennett, 1993; Hales & Magnus, 1991; Ura & Moneyham, 1998).…”

“…Traditionally, community assessments have been used to benefit students' educational requirements rather than to plan needed community change ( Bayne et al, 1994). Critical elements that often limit an in‐depth community assessment or a utilitarian project include time constraints, community agency restrictions on the scope of student practice, student difficulty in identifying community problems, and insufficient student empowerment to effect change ( Carlson‐Catalano, 1992; Kemp, 1994; Ura & Moneyham, 1998). Incongruent goals of agency nurses, administrators, faculty, and students may obstruct the team dynamics necessary for a successful community project.…”