Preparing Future Nurses for a Life of Civic Engagement: The Disaster Preparedness for Vulnerable Populations Project

Community service learning has been utilized to teach nursing students how be become actively engaged in the communities they will be serving with varying degrees of success. Aim: The purpose of this report was to describe a collaborative service learning project to prepare seniors, disabled persons and the mentally ill for a disaster. Method: Students were required to write reflective journals about how the service learning experience will influence their future nursing practice. Results: Themes that emerged from the reflective journals included "concern”, “isolation and loneliness”, “neglect and marginalization” “increased awareness of vulnerable populations”, “new sense of civic engagement” and “bio-psycho-social diversity”. Conclusion: Though the project was successful, nursing faculty need to consider new teaching methodologies so that they can adequately mentor students through the community service learning experience