Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #110279

Jane W. Peterson, RN, PhD and Helen A. Miske, RN, MN. College of Nursing, Seattle University, 901 12th Avenue, PO Box 222000, Seattle, WA 98122-1090, 206-296-5686, hmiske@seattleu.edu

Purpose: To show how PHN students use core competencies in conducting a community project. Rationale/Background: The public health nursing core competencies represent a set of skills, knowledge, and attitudes which guide students as they work to address community issues. This gives students an immediate understanding of the standards for public health nursing practice. Method: All students conduct a population-based community project. Here we discuss the “Health Desk,” a resource center set up in a culturally diverse mixed-income community by a group of students and continued by subsequent students in the same course. Results: Students assess the community, plan the program with community members, use various communication skills to advertise the program, make linkages with other agencies and develops sensitive approaches to the many diverse cultural groups within the population. The outcome is the development of a weekly “Health Desk” run by students. The University provided a grant once success was demonstrated as an ongoing community program, A second “Health Desk” was then established which addresses issues of concern to an elderly population. This became the model for the University Tent City (homeless) “Health Desk.” Implications: The core competencies guide student learning as they move from awareness to knowledge. The “Health Desk” project demonstrates the value of linking residents to health care resources on an ongoing basis. It is now a model that has been replicated in other settings.

Learning Objectives:

• List three core competencies used in developing a community project.
• Describe how core competencies guide project planning.
• Discuss how the “Health Desk” project can apply to other populations

Keywords: Competency, Students

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.