Community health practicum with an oncology nursing focus

A Community Health Practicum in Oncology Nursing for senior nursing students in a baccalaureate program is described. The practicum was designed to meet two objectives in the undergraduate curriculum: (1) to give students experience in the care of patients and families in the community by using cancer as a model of a life-threatening disease requiring acute and chronic care, rehabilitation, etc. and (2) to provide knowledge about cancer care and prevention and give an opportunity for students to participate in a small-scale cancer prevention project. Patient and family reactions to care provided by students were evaluated with a semi-structured telephone interview. Evaluations of the students' clinical performances and cancer prevention projects were made by instructor observation. Pre/post-tests given to those being taught during the projects provided additional evaluations of the students' projects. Evaluation of the students' reactions to the learning experience was made by their responses to items on an evaluation tool.