Water as an exemplar thoughout an undergraduate community health nursing course

Background and Issues: In an interdisciplinary course in sustainability studies, water was selected as an exemplar as both a resource and potential public health problem. This led to the development of an educational initiative using water as the key integrating principle for the study of community/public health nursing.

Description: Water as an exemplar was threaded throughout the course syllabus in order to highlight the importance of water to health, its relationship to community assessment, particular issues related to vulnerable populations, the need for protection of water sources in disaster planning, as a mode of communicable disease transmission, as a source of toxic exposure and as a diminishing resource for the world population. Finally, efforts to engage student nurses in a campaign for safer water can sustain the focus on this important resource.

Lessons learned: Innovations such as using water as a theme for course planning and presentations can engage students in broader public health agendas.

Recommendations and future plans:

Recommendations are to broaden the integration of water as an exemplar for pubic health into the undergraduate nursing curriculum in order to highlight the importance of this threatened resource for human health. Finally, efforts to engage student nurses in a campaign for safer water can sustain the focus on this important resource.