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

Abstract #111250

Susan Zahner, DrPH, RN¹, Watchareeporn Lamchitakthet, MPH, BS¹, Wendy Damm, MS, RN¹, Brenda Kupsch, MBA¹, Pamela Scheibel, MS, APN¹, Brenda Owen, MS, RN², and Doris Ellison, MS, RN³. (1) School of Nursing, University of Wisconsin-Madison, H6/246 Clinical Sciences Center, 600 Highland Avenue, Madison, WI 53792-2455, 608-263-5282, sjzahner@wisc.edu, (2) H03-03, Gundersen Lutheran Medical Center, 1910 South Avenue, La Crosse, WI 54601, (3) Nursing, Edgewood College, 1000 Edgewood College Drive, Madison, WI 53711

Experienced community/public health nurses frequently serve as preceptors to nursing students for community/public health clinical education. Although preceptors are expected to teach, supervise, and evaluate student nurses, the extent of preparation and support for the role they receive from schools of nursing is often limited. One strategy schools can take is to provide targeted continuing education to preceptors. This paper presents an evaluation of an online continuing education course titled, “Partnerships for Learning Community Health Nursing,” created by the authors for community/public health nurse preceptors. The course consists of nine modules, delivered asynchronously via the internet. Module topics include preceptor roles; assisting students in learning population-focused public health nursing, critical thinking, and cultural competence; learning styles and teaching strategies; what to do in challenging situations; evaluation and feedback; and specific information about general policies and procedures and course assignments. Successful completion of each module provides the participant one contact hour of continuing education credit, for a total of nine contact hours for completion of the entire course. The sample included 24 nurses, 17 from local health departments and seven from other community health agencies. Evaluation was conducted using pre- and post-tests with follow-up surveys after preceptors completed one semester working with a student. Information about preceptor learning, satisfaction with the course, and perceptions of the value of the course in supporting their work with students will be presented. Results for public health nurses will be compared to nurses in other community health settings.

Learning Objectives:

• Discuss online continuing education as a strategy to support public health nurses in a preceptor role.
• Articulate the methods used to evaluate an online continuing education course for preceptors.
• Describe the findings of an evaluation of an online continuing education course for preceptors.

Keywords: Public Health Nursing, Nursing Education

Related Web page: mynursingce.son.wisc.edu/index.pl?op=show;id=11340

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.