Increasing Nursing Students’ Knowledge of Health Promotion Through Community Engagement

Abstract

The shift in health care toward primary health care and health promotion requires nurse educators to ensure students learn to practice the skill of health promotion. An ideal way in which to do this is with collaborative partnerships in community settings. The need to practice primary health care as part of an interprofessional team is also a growing trend. This article describes an innovative collaborative partnership with the city school system and nonprofit community partners to provide necessary interprofessional health screenings and health education to underserved community members. Through these partnerships, community health nursing students have the opportunity to participate in health screenings for children enrolled in the preschool program, provide health screenings and health education to healthy working adults, and engage in health promotion with school-age children by teaching the importance of practicing bicycle safety. These programs provide nursing students with unique opportunities for interprofessional collaboration while improving their health promotion, teaching, and communication skills. This approach serves as a model to guide nursing faculty members who need to provide students community health experiences that include health promotion and disease and injury prevention.