Collaborating With Community Partners to Address Population Health in an Online Advanced Nursing Practice Course

Engaging in effective community partnerships is a core competency for advanced nursing practice.

To describe a semester-long population health project that involved collaboration with a community partner in an online and asynchronous advanced nursing practice course and to evaluate students' perceptions of their community partner collaboration.

At the beginning of the course, students selected health topics and community partners. Perceptions of the collaboration were evaluated in a survey. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and content analysis.

Approximately 59% of the students found the community partnership was very valuable. Barriers for working with community partners included reluctancy, feeling like a burden, and challenges with scheduling. Facilitators for working with community partners included receiving support on the project, gaining new perspectives, and the collaborative relationship.

Community partnership assignments on population health projects can support students in obtaining skills on effective community partnerships while they are in their education programs.