Teaching community/public health nursing online: An unfolding case study approach

Background/Issues: The American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) reports 650 RN-BSN programs in the United States with the majority of programs delivered in online or hybrid formats. The AACN Baccalaureate Essential VII: Clinical Prevention and Population Health demonstrates the importance of curriculum related to population health as an integral component of a baccalaureate generalist practice. Online/hybrid delivery poses challenges to the educator to engage students located in diverse geographies while transitioning to the digital classroom. Description: Students, living nationwide, travel online through a 4 credit course over 7.5 weeks with a virtual family designed to facilitate engagement in the core values of Community/Population as Client, Prevention, Partnership, Healthy Environment and Diversity. The virtual family “lives” in each student's zip code with unfolding case studies serving as basis for discussion boards, written assignments and practical application activities grounding theory and engaging students in the communities the students reside in. Lessons Learned: Positive student feedback related to understanding prevention based on local community resources and using “real” epidemiologic data to plan local interventions encourages faculty to develop cases that support course learning outcomes. Rich dialogue among students also brings understanding of disparate health policies and resources across geographies. Recommendations: Faculty experiences provide a rich resource base for the development of virtual families and unfolding case studies promoting analytical and critical thinking skills in the student populations served. Tapping into this resource and developing successful, innovative online teaching conserves funding while improving ability to reach distant students with meaningful community/public health courses.