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Service learning: preparing a healthcare workforce for the next century
1School of Nursing, East Carolina University, Greenville NC 27858, USA. maynel@mail.ecu.edu
Nurse Educator
|July 20, 2002
Summary
Service learning and community partnerships effectively prepare nursing students for 21st-century healthcare. This approach equips future nurses to address aggregate and population health needs through interdisciplinary collaboration.
Area of Science:
- Nursing Education
- Public Health
- Community Health
Background:
- Preparing nurses for 21st-century healthcare demands innovative educational strategies.
- Traditional nursing curricula require enhancement to meet evolving population health needs.
- Community-based education and service learning offer valuable experiential learning opportunities.
Purpose of the Study:
- To describe a model for preparing nurses through service learning and community-based education.
- To highlight the importance of interdisciplinary collaboration in nursing education.
- To demonstrate a successful university-community partnership in rural North Carolina.
Main Methods:
- Implementing a service learning curriculum integrating two university disciplines.
- Fostering community partnerships for hands-on student experiences.
- Facilitating interdisciplinary collaboration among students and faculty.
Main Results:
- Students gained practical experience in addressing community health needs.
- The partnership successfully connected academic learning with real-world public health challenges.
- Interdisciplinary collaboration enhanced students' understanding of holistic patient care.
Conclusions:
- Service learning coupled with community partnerships is vital for modern nursing education.
- Nursing faculty must structure curricula to prepare students for population health.
- Collaborative university-community models are effective for developing competent, community-focused nurses.