Teaching the needs of immigrant populations and cultural competence through community partnerships

Background: The immigrant population continues to grow in the United States and immigrant groups can be found in rural and urban communities. Public health nurses must be prepared to care for culturally and religiously diverse populations. Description: For the past three years baccalaureate nursing students from a mid-sized Catholic university have had community health clinical rotations at an Arab social service organization. Students have worked with the English as a second language (ESL) teacher to teach breast health, healthy food choices, managing stress related to acculturation and integrative pest management while the ESL teacher incorporated key English words related to the weekly health topic into the English lesson plan. Additionally, nursing students have provided information regarding health insurance options as well as health lessons and health screenings in the adjoining Islamic day school. Nursing students also attend at least one Islamic worship service and eat Arab food during their clinical rotation. Lessons Learned: This relationship has provided needed services for the Arab immigrant community while providing the opportunity for nursing students to learn community assessment skills and cultural and religious competence through cultural immersion. Students have also had the opportunity to work with interpreters and to address the needs of an immigrant community. Recommendations: Partnering with a social service organization, while keeping the needs of the community served as the priority has demonstrated to be mutually beneficial to the social service agency and the undergraduate nursing program.