It's the Experience: A Course Redesign to Shift Student Perspectives on Population-Centered Nursing

Area of Science:

• Nursing Education
• Population Health
• Experiential Learning

Background:

• Undergraduate nursing education requires bridging theoretical knowledge with practical application.
• Online learning environments present unique challenges in delivering authentic clinical experiences.
• Population health nursing necessitates understanding complex patient situations influenced by social determinants of health.

Purpose of the Study:

• To design and evaluate an innovative experiential learning activity for an online undergraduate population health nursing course.
• To enhance students' ability to connect course content with abstract concepts and real-world patient scenarios.
• To improve nursing students' readiness for practice by incorporating social determinants of health.

Main Methods:

• Development of an authentic experiential learning activity within an online undergraduate population health nursing course.
• Integration of social determinants of health principles to increase the realism and applicability of the learning experience.
• Focus on connecting theoretical course content with practical patient situations.

Main Results:

• The experiential learning activity provided an authentic experience for online undergraduate nursing students.
• The activity successfully connected course content with abstract concepts and patient situations.
• Incorporating social determinants of health enhanced the realism and applicability of the learning experience.

Conclusions:

• Innovative experiential learning activities can effectively enhance nursing students' understanding and application of population health concepts.
• The integration of social determinants of health is crucial for preparing nurses for real-world practice.
• This approach can improve nursing students' readiness for practice in diverse healthcare settings.