Developing community partnerships in nursing education for children’s health

Use of Private, Parochial, and Public Schools in Baccalaureate Nursing Programs for Pediatric Practicum

BACKGROUND

Clinical sites are increasingly difficult to secure due to shorter hospital stays, increased clinical site competition, and limited practicum sites. Little is known about the use of schools for pediatric clinical practicum.

PURPOSE

To explore utilization of private, parochial, and public primary and secondary schools for pediatric clinical practicum sites.

METHODS

Faculty (n = 108) completed a 38-item online survey.

RESULTS

Twenty-seven faculty members (25%) reported using schools for pediatric practicum. Most nursing students (85.1%) spent 23 total hours or less in schools obtaining anthropometric measurements, reviewing immunizations, and providing health education to children, parents, and teachers.

CONCLUSION

Using schools for the pediatric practicum is thought to be a common practice; our findings suggest otherwise. School-based practicums provide students with skills beyond acute care competencies. Nursing faculty need to seriously consider which pediatric clinical settings provide the best experience to prepare future nurses.

Pediatric practicums in undergraduate nursing programs: an integrative review

BACKGROUND

Practicum Placements are the signature andragogy used in undergraduate nursing programs to bring about knowledge consolidation. Little is known, however, about the types of pediatric practicum placements utilized by nursing programs to provide practical learning opportunities in child health to their students. The purpose of this integrative review is to identify and appraise existing literature on practical pediatric practices in undergraduate nursing education.

METHOD

Searches were conducted using the main relevant databases and search engines. Of the numerous articles retrieved, screened, and reviewed, 15 met the inclusion and exclusion criteria. Results were then analyzed using thematic analysis.

RESULTS

Two overarching themes were identified: (1) Adaptation, and (2) Learning.

CONCLUSION

Findings revealed that most nursing programs utilize alternative placement sites to meet the learning need of their students. These sites provided students with the opportunities to care for children and adolescents, and engage in a variety of health promotion and teaching activities.

Pediatric Practicums Conducted in School Settings: An Integrative Review

Background Examining nursing pedagogical strategies is important to assure that nursing students have opportunities to become knowledgeable and skilled clinicians. However, little is known about the nursing pedagogical strategy of using schools for pediatric practicum. The purpose of this review is to integrate the evidence regarding the use of schools as practicum sites for nursing students to obtain pediatric clinical experience. Method Searches were conducted in three electronic databases resulting in 70 publications; eight publications met the inclusion criteria. Results Five themes were identified using content analysis: description of practicum settings; level of education, number of students, clinical time and geographic region of the college; theoretical framework; nursing student activities and assignments; nursing student outcomes, evaluation of pediatric practicum experience, and school student health outcomes. Conclusion Findings support the use of schools for pediatric practicums.  This practicum broadens nursing students' knowledge of promoting health among well and chronically ill children.

Using Elementary Schools for Pediatric Practicum: An Alternative Approach

Securing clinical sites that facilitate achievement of nursing skills to competently care for children is often challenging for nursing faculty. An additional challenge is helping nursing students learn the importance of conceptually driven practice and its application in the delivery of high quality care. This manuscript describes an alternative pedagogical approach that utilizes elementary schools for pediatric practicum, which is framed by the Whole School, Whole Community, Whole Child Model. Our model driven approach not only provides a framework by which baccalaureate nursing students gain the skills necessary to interact with, educate, and care for children, but also one in which they can gain a greater understanding of how the home, school and community influence the overall health and well-being of children. Subsequently, this pedagogy serves as an exemplar of how an alternative site can be utilized to successfully educate nursing students regarding the care of children.

Service-Learning in Undergraduate Nursing Education: Where is the Reflection?

Service-Learning is recognized as a valuable pedagogy that involves experiential learning, reflection, and reciprocal learning. Reflection is a critical component because it assists students to develop critical thinking and social awareness as they reflect upon their experiential learning with community partners. Although there is a proliferation of literature about service-learning, upon closer examination, it is apparent that some authors do not place emphasis on reflection when reporting on service-learning projects. This begs the question, "Where is the reflection?" The purpose of this article is to provide an overview and describe misrepresentations and exemplars of service-learning. After providing an overview of service-learning, examples of how service-learning is misrepresented in the literature are discussed. Exemplars of service-learning are also cited. Calling attention to how service-learning is reported in the literature will increase awareness about the need to critically evaluate articles for evidence of reflection.

Developmental evaluation of preschool children: a service-learning experience for nursing students

Service-learning is a practice that is beneficial for both students and community participants. This article presents the service-learning experience of senior-level undergraduate nursing students at a southeastern U.S. university. Nursing students were taught how to administer the Denver II Developmental Screening Test (DDST-II), and they then evaluated high-risk preschool children during a clinical nursing experience. A total of 1,030 children were screened between 2008 and 2012. Early detection of developmental delays promotes earlier intervention for concerns, and the implementation of this service-learning project using a valid and sensitive screening tool aids in the cost-effective identification of preschool children who are at risk for developmental delays. Student evaluations of the experience were positive, and examples of the knowledge acquired are provided.

A School-Based Health Center-University Nursing Partnership: How We Filled in the GAPS

Young adolescents, age 10-15 years, have increasing psychosocial and biomedical health care needs, yet are some of the lowest users of conventional health services. In eastern North Carolina, school-based health centers (SBHCs) provide primary health care to thousands of school-age children in the most rural, medically underserved areas. SBHCs receive reimbursement from local, state, and private funding sources and their viability depends on the demonstration of outcomes. Using the Guidelines for Adolescent Preventive Services (GAPS) assessment tool, an SBHC-university nursing partnership evaluated the use of preventive health services by fifth and sixth grade students (n = 690). Findings suggest that the vast majority of early adolescents needed a referral for a physical exam, nutrition, mental health, or health education services. This article describes key components for a successful SBHC-university nursing partnership that can evaluate and improve existing school health programs.

Core principles for developing global service-learning programs in nursing

Global service-learning enables nursing to develop its role in promoting global health and enabling vulnerable and marginalized global communities to develop their own capacity for growth and development. Global service-learning requires good planning that is based on sound best-practice principles. Drawing on the growing body of literature on service-learning, the authors outline and discuss seven key principles that can usefully guide global service-learning. These are: are compassion, curiosity, courage, collaboration, creativity, capacity building, and competence. These principles can form the basis for ethically sound program development, offer a means of standardizing program development, and provide common criteria with which to evaluate a program's success.

Reciprocity within biochemistry and biology service-learning

Service-learning has become a popular pedagogy because of its numerous and far-reaching benefits (e.g. student interest, engagement, and retention). In part, the benefits are a result of the student learning while providing a service that reflects a true need-not simply an exercise. Although service-learning projects have been developed in the areas of Biochemistry and Biology, many do not require reciprocity between the student and those being served. A reciprocal relationship enables a depth in learning as students synthesize and integrate their knowledge while confronting a real-life need. A novel reciprocal service-learning project within a three-semester undergraduate research course in the areas of Biochemistry and Biology is presented. The goal of the project was agreed upon through joint meetings with the partner institution (The Wilds) to develop an in-house competitive ELISA pregnane diol assay. Student progress and achievements were followed through the use of rubrics and progress-meetings with The Wilds. A portfolio provided a visual of progress as it contained both the written assignments as well as the rubric. The article describes a specific reciprocal biochemistry and biology service-learning project and provides recommendations on how to adapt this service-learning design for use in other research courses.

Clinical Education Partnership: A Model for School District and College of Nursing Collaboration

Collaboration between school districts and universities has potential to increase the level of health services available in schools while providing quality public health clinical nursing placements for universities. This article describes the development, implementation, and evaluation of the Clinical Education Partnership Model (CEPM), a dynamic framework that specifies four sets of factors necessary for high-quality clinical learning experiences for nursing students in school settings: essential school district structures, essential college of nursing curriculum and arrangements, the interface of the district and university within the community context, and program outcomes. The CEPM was piloted over three semesters with public health nursing students with positive evaluative feedback and shows evidence of sustainability. The CEPM provides a solid foundation for ongoing mutually beneficial collaborative relationships in which school nursing practice and school health are enhanced and academic programs are enriched.