Partnerships using simulation to enhance nursing students' understanding of relationships between poverty and health

Partnerships Using Simulation to Enhance Nursing Students' Understanding of Relationships Between Poverty and Health

A partnership was created between faculty members of West Virginia University School of Nursing, faculty of the Extension program and from the Division of Social Work at the University. The extension program has offered this Poverty Simulation experience to communities in order to help participants begin to understand what it might be like to live in a typical low-income family trying to survive month to month. The purpose of this collaboration was to facilitate senior nursing student's understanding of the multidimensional elements of poverty. This experience was part of an orientation process prior to students beginning their semester long Community rotation in rural West Virginia. Since most nursing students have limited if any experience with poverty, nursing faculty are faced with the challenge of how to teach the complex health and social issues related to poverty. Nurses must identify and recognize the personal beliefs, cultural values and knowledge that form their own worldviews and influence how they practice. Participation in the simulation placed nursing students into scripted scenarios of family groups that had to negotiate through a compacted month long time period. Each played a role as a family member and interacted with faculty volunteers who role-played as community resource providers. At the conclusion of the three-hour simulation, the fifty-two students met in groups to debrief and discuss how the experience might influence their practice as a nurse in the community as well as hospital setting.

Learning Objectives: At the end of the session, the participant will be able to:

The learner will be able to:

1.Identify the use of a poverty simulation as an innovative teaching modality for nursing students.

2.Describe strategies to foster partnerships in academic settings