A unique strategy for pediatric community health nursing for ADN students

Students were overwhelmingly positive when given the opportunity to evaluate the pilot project and the model of pediatric community health nursing. According to the students, the strong points of the model were the orientation before the community experience, the presence of faculty of the community, the ability to contact faculty when needed, and the postclinical conference. The students' comments confirmed the faculty's belief that a clinical experience in community health nursing must place more emphasis on the specialty of community health nursing to be meaningful for students. To do the of job of educating tomorrow's nurses, ADN faculty should develop new strategies for teaching the pediatric clinical component of community health nursing. Clearly, hospitals are no longer the exclusive sites where students learn about patient and family needs and nursing care delivery. Community-based and community-focused experiences will continue to be required so that nursing students are prepared to practice in a dynamic and changing healthcare environment.