George Shuster, DNSc, RN, University of New Mexico: College of Nursing, Nursing pharmacy building, Albuquerque, NM 87131, 505-272-5612, gshuster@salud.unm.edu

Using APEXPH* for Community Assessment By Undergraduate Nursing Students Teaching the community assessment process to undergraduate public health nursing students can be a difficult challenge. BSN student understanding and application of the community assessment process is an important part of undergraduate public health nursing courses. Yet many students find the process abstract and difficult to understand. The Assessment Protocol for Excellence in Public Health (APEXPH) was developed by the Centers for Disease Control in cooperation with the American Public Health Association and several other Public Health organizations in 1991. Although it was initially designed for use by local health departments, Part II of the workbook provides a detailed step-by-step community assessment process based on the community- as-partner model. When this process is modified and revised for use by undergraduate nursing students it can provide a clear, concrete step-by-step process of community assessment for students. Clinical faculty can use this modified process to monitor student progress and provide appropriate feedback. Specific worksheets were developed for the students to use and submit as part of this step by step process. Completed student worksheets subsequently provided the framework when they wrote their required 20 page community assessment papers. End of semester course evaluations by the students indicate that they like the structured process and the use of these worksheets while faculty found that using the APEXPH format has resulted in a marked improvement in the quality and depth of student papers. APEXPH*= Assessment Protocol for Excellence in Public Health

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