Developing an evening clinical experience for baccalaureate community health nursing students

With the ever-changing directions in health care delivery, baccalaureate nursing instructors are being challenged with the task of seeking out innovative approaches to community health nursing clinical experiences. With the focus on "community as client," an evening clinical program was designed and piloted for nontraditional nursing students who, because of daytime employment, were in need of evening courses to further their nursing education. The pilot project incorporated family nursing care, community-centered practice, and observational experiences. The evening community health nursing clinical experience was found to be mutually beneficial to clients and students and served to fill a gap in health teaching within the community.