141st APHA Annual Meeting

In This section

281442
Student reflections on promoting health and wellness of populations through education and practice

Monday, November 4, 2013

Sheilia Goodwin, BS, BSN, MSN, PhD , School of Health Sciences, Division of Nursing, Winston-Salem State University, Winston-salem, NC
Bobbie Reddick, BSN, MPH, EdD , School of Health Sciences, Division of Nursing, Winston-Salem State University, Winston-Salem, NC
This study explored reflections of community health nursing students regarding promoting health and wellness of populations in a variety of nontraditional clinical experiences. Additionally, challenges in providing clinical placements for community health nursing students that help change the students' perspectives from a focus on the individual client in the acute care setting to population-focused care were examined. In this study community health clinical placements were designed and implemented through a partnership of a nursing program in a four-year university and various community organizations that provide services to different populations. Student reflections were evaluated by course faculty with several considerations: 1. In their reflections, do students perceive variations in health and wellness across population groups? 2. Are students able to develop and maintain a population-focused perspective? For example, identification of concerns such as obesity, hypertension, and diabetes in minority populations? 3. Do student reflections demonstrate understanding of these variations as a public health concern and not as individual health problems?

A retrospective study of clinical written reflections completed as part of the course requirements for community health nursing were used by faculty to assess student knowledge, proficiency and attitudes related to public health concerns of health and wellness Content analysis was used to identify themes from student reflections. After analysis of the data, a rubric (derived from the data)was developed to ease evaluation of future data collected.

Learning Areas:
Provision of health care to the public
Public health or related education
Public health or related nursing

Learning Objectives:
Explain at least one method to evaluate clinical experiences for potential to enhance students' level of reflection concerning health and wellness of populations. Analyze sample student reflective journal entries for type and level of reflection.

Keywords: Education, Public Health Curricula

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I have been the co-investigator on several IRB-approved studies examining student critical thinking (including reflection. I have taught community health nursing and courses in an MPH program for a number of years. I have several publication in process that examine critical thinking in community health nursing students in the US and in Saudi Arabia. In the study for which the abstract is submitted, I developed a rubric to evaluate critical thinking derived from the data.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.