“It’s not on the NCLEX®.” “I’m not going to be a public health nurse.” “There are not any skills used in community health.” “It's boring.”
What community health professor has not heard one or all the above? I know for me; I’ve heard it all. It is discouraging and so very incorrect. How can educators encourage nursing students to care about community health?
A person’s community impacts a client’s overall health by up to 80%. That alone makes community health one of the most essential nursing courses for a student. It involves personal safety, education level, access to housing, childcare, steady employment, healthy foods, and transportation, to name a few. Add the epidemic of systemic racism, healthcare coverage, medical debt, increase in technology, and the global pandemic, and that makes a jam-packed course full of remarkably interesting and relevant content.
How can we change a nursing student’s outlook on community health?
Simple, by adding more active learning experiences (ALE) for the students. The ALE listed below are not usually an additional cost to the student or university and are to be used in addition to a clinical rotation, another reason to adopt and help get the word out on how vital community health is.
