Pamela Preston
Saint Anselm College, USA
Title: Challenges in community and public health nursing education: Student perceptions of diverse clinical experiences
Biography
Biography: Pamela Preston
Abstract
Current trends in healthcare emphasize a shift from acute care to community-based settings. It is challenging to provide appropriate community clinical learning experiences as programs compete for placements as resources are understaffed and overworked. As a result, Saint Anselm College, a traditional four-year baccalaureate college in New England, began incorporating a variety of diverse community/public health sites into the clinical rotation for the community/public health nursing course. Sites include urgent care centers, ambulatory care centers, wound centers, pain management, prisons, homeless clinics, cancer centers, parish nursing, department of health offices and visiting nurse programs. Second-year Junior and senior nursing students were randomly assigned to spend 10 clinical days at 1 or 2 clinical sites. The students participated in, planned and conducted diverse nursing and educational activities. At the end of the experience, the students completed evaluations consisting of a Likert scale and open-ended questions to rate the experience. The purpose of this study was to compare the student perceptions of the value of experiences and impact on learning outcomes.