Practice Overview:

Synthesis of Community and Public Health Nursing concepts are provided in a variety of community partnered settings.  Nursing practice experiences occur in urban and rural community settings including primary care clinics, public health departments, occupational work sites, public housing sites, and shelters for the homeless, women, and the abused.

Practice Objective:

• Interpret behavior patterns of clients from diverse socioeconomic, ethnic, religious, and cultural backgrounds as a basis for nursing practice
• Demonstrate knowledge, skill, and safety for practice Abilities as listed
• Practice nursing care that is caring, compassionate, safe, and scholarly to diverse groups of clients in community partnered settings
• Demonstrate knowledge and skills related to comprehensive assessments in community and/or occupational health/work site settings
• Design, conduct, and evaluate health teaching offerings to a group of culturally dissimilar clients.
• Value culturally rooted health practices.

Practice Assessment Tool

Each week, while you are reflecting on your practice experiences, use the Practice Assessment Tool to self assess.  Use the Comments column to give examples of your integration of course objectives and progress toward achieving practice outcomes. Please bring the completed Practice Assessment Tool with your self assessment of practice to class the following week.

Experiences:

• Community Partnered Care is a 4 credit hour course.
• Class: 1 1/2 hours per week for a total of 22 hours
• Practice: 7.5 hours per week for a total of 112.5 hours (for every credit hour there are 3 clinical hours)

Practice is working with individuals, families, and communities. You will participate in a community assessment and will have an opportunity to work with a family who may be experiencing many health needs, such as chronic illness, poverty, tuberculosis, AIDS, & lack of transportation, to name only a few. You will also have the opportunity to work in various health clinics and visit many health agencies.  You will visit an occupational clinic and work site.

Home Visit: Each student will visit a family throughtout the semester.  You will be visiting with a partner who will also have a family.
Click here for home visit guidelines.

Click here for:  Confidentiality Form for your signature

Requirements:

• Weekly Journals: To be turned in weekly (no exceptions) by Monday 12 Noon following practice.

JOURNAL WRITING 

Purpose: Journal writing achieves several objectives: it is a thinking skill which "organizes thought and thereby facilitates analysis and synthesis. One learns by writing and can transfer leaning from one context to another" (Heinrich, 1992).

Journalizing links classroom activity, reading, and practice experiences.  Through journals you develop skills in "introspection, reflection, self conversation, and dialogue."

Journals, unlike logs or diaries, are "written dialogues between the self and a chosen audience of teachers, mentors, or colleagues" (Ibid).

Journals serve as a diagnostic tool in which the teacher/mentor can assess the student's increasing ability to observe and create linkages between reading, class activity, and clinical laboratory.

Style: Friendly, letter writing format.

Format:   Personal/ Professional------Readings/Theory--------Class Discussions

Guidelines:

• Be ritualistic: set aside time each practice day and each time you read for the course to reflect and write.
• Be Creative: use any inserts, news articles, photos, cartoons, etc. to share your views or concerns.
• Use loose-leaf format so faculty can be reviewing an entry while you may be working on another.  In the end, all components of the journal will be submitted as a whole document.  Recommended entry:  1-2 pages.  You may also send these by e-mail  as attachments.
• When finished, go back and read your entry, &  give it a title.

Source:  Heinrick, K.T. (1992).  The intimate dialogue of journal writing by students.  Nurse Educator 17 (6), 17-22
Reflective Journals

Practice Abilities:  Health Promotion (Aggregates) and Community Assessment