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The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA |
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The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA |
Wendy Burgess, PhD, RN, CS, School of Nursing, North Park University, 3225 W. Foster, Chicago, IL 60625, 773-244-5698, wburgess@northpark.edu
Community health nursing faculty are often assigned to teach courses in which the majority of students are acute care nurses. Their professional orientation is toward providing comprehensive care to an individual, primarily physical, in a highly structured institutional environment. And, they do it very well. However, when they arrive in our classes, they often find us to be global thinkers with multiple strategies, unusual ideas, and a willingness to work with limited concrete information. Further, they often have little interest in or understanding of family or community focused care or the differences in the ethical focus of our practice. Still, certifying bodies for nurse practitioners and clinical specialists as well as programs for baccalaureate degrees commonly require courses with such titles as Epidemiology and Community Health Nursing. Our challenge is not only to convey certain information, but to address affective objectives that require students to internalize a perspective, often without clinical reinforcement, that is foreign to them. This becomes, at times, a very dissatisfying experience for all. This paper will include discussion of differences in professional orientation, why addressing these differences is important, and selected strategies for creating a comfortable and effective learning environment.
Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of this session, participants will be able to
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.