Use of Health Fairs to Develop Public Health Nursing Competencies

Abstract

This paper describes a community-campus partnership for health education established through the effort of faculty, students, and the community. Health fairs designed to address issues of concern to a community agency were originally conducted with nursing students. This partnership between nursing and a community was expanded to include social work, physical therapy, and medical students. A shared learning experience was structured through the presentation of health fairs in collaboration with agencies in Burlington, Vermont. One goal of nursing education is to produce professionals who have the beginning competencies of public health nursing. Reflection on the process, relationships, and outcomes of the health fairs revealed that students attained these beginning competencies in all eight public health nursing competency domains. Combining community-campus partnerships and an interdisciplinary focus enabled nursing students to become more responsive to community needs and to learn to work collaboratively toward creating healthier communities, thus building skills required for public health nursing.

Engaging Student Health Organizations in Reducing Health Disparities in Underserved Communities through Volunteerism: Developing a Student Health Corps

“…Findings from this study strongly support that the volunteer efforts of student health organizations that provide health screenings and health education programs in underserved areas, 55–58 as well as other community health activities, 23,24,59 can play a significant role in reducing and eliminating health disparities. In this study, we found that student health organizations, acting in a volunteer capacity, provided much needed health services to thousands of racial/ethnic minority group members (Hispanics, African Americans, and Asian Pacific Islanders).…”

Finding Common Ground in Public Health Nursing Education and Practice

“…Most examples of collaborative partnerships between academia and practice have been between one school of nursing and one organization, for example, development of clinical learning experiences in local school districts (Brosnan et al, 2005;Kreulen, Bednarz, Wehrwein, & Davis, 2008); implementation of health fairs (Maltby, 2006); expansion of clinical learning experiences in underserved areas (Aponte & Nickitas, 2007;Hall-Long, 2004); and clinical learning opportunities in faithbased settings (Herman & Sassatelli, 2002). Collaborations between more than two partners included: (1) a school of nursing that worked with three health departments to diversify students' public health clinical learning experiences (Reifsnider, Hook, Muennink, & Vogt, 2004) and (2) two schools of nursing, two tribal health agencies, and three county public health agencies that developed an academic practice partnership (Fauchald, 2004).…”

Interdisciplinary Health Fairs for Older Adults and the Value of Interprofessional Service Learning

“…Interdisciplinary health fairs allow students from different programs to learn the relationships between health and social problems, for example, poverty and decline in physical health. Maltby (2006) found that interdisciplinary health fairs allow different disciplines to provide critical services to the community while meeting academic course objectives. Although schools of nursing and social work will continue to struggle with differing course schedules, professional requirements, and student recruitment, health fairs may become a link among community engagement, service learning, and interdisciplinary education.…”