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TCU nursing students are making an impact on health and well
being beyond hospital walls. The Public/Community Health Nursing:
Practicum course, taught by Geri Disnard, professional practice
adjunct faculty member, provides students with a bigger picture of
the health of the community through their clinical assignments in a
variety of community agencies.
This practicum course, along with the integrated concepts
course, focuses on evaluating an entire community instead of an
individual client through a concept called “population health care in
the community.”
Sharon Canclini, associate professor of professional practice,
explained that public health nurses work with populations instead
of individual patients, and assess ways to prevent common public
health concerns before they occur.
“It’s all about perspective. We put nursing students in different
environments,” Canclini said. The students are exposed to different
culturally sensitive situations, and to various experiences that require
students to identify health needs in diverse communities.
Harris College initiated a connection with a new community partner,
the Day Resource Center (DRC) in Fort Worth, in spring 2013,
allowing nursing students to broaden their clinical experiences
with the homeless population. The DRC provides basic amenities for
homeless individuals, such as laundry and shower facilities.
Kelsey Williams, a senior nursing major, completed her clinical
assignment at the DRC. Williams described her group’s clinical site
as a “foundational beginning” as the students sought to launch this
program. (Many clinical sites within this course have longstanding
relationships.)
“This site required lots of outside research,”Williams said. The group
needed to investigate best practices for the homeless population,
and decided to first host a health fair to establish a nursing presence
and educate individuals who visited the DRC.
The health fair included five stations with various health topics and
handouts. These stations addressed basic health concerns such as
nutrition, diabetes, mental health and hypertension. The participants
were able to demonstrate what they had learned at this event by
answering questions from a spinning wheel game.
“For the future, I hope that the health fair will be expanded. I
think it would be great if it could be geared toward a typical clinic
atmosphere through basic assessment and referrals,” Williams
said. “This experience has given me a well-rounded educational
opportunity in working with a diverse population. It has enhanced
my communication skills and helped with the team aspect of clinical
assignments for the future. Overall, it was very rewarding,” she said.
The students in the DRC clinical site provided refillable water bottles
that can be attached to backpacks or belts for the convenience of the
homeless. They provided about 600 water bottles, including some
donated by other local agencies.
Canclini explained that nursing students are taught to write grants
for projects such as this, including a strong rationale supported
by research data, and providing the funding request in the initial
proposal. In this case, “Students will help prevent a problem as
opposed to treating the outcome,” Canclini said.
Canclini ensures that clinical sites are successful for student learning.
She also meets with the leadership from each site to develop
relationships, and continuously pursues additional opportunities
and sites for nursing students.
“It is always service-learning, meaning the students are learning
while they are serving the community. Students are given a real
problem they must solve,” Canclini said.
Canclini explained that this theory on educating students about
public health requires students to design solutions for complex
community problems, and analyzemethods to address amultifaceted
situation.
“We want our nurses to know what resources are in the community,
and know how to seek information. An effective nurse will always be
a public health-minded nurse,” Canclini said.
She explained that students in this class will know how to link
patients to additional resources beyond hospital-based care. “We
seek to combine expertise and talent with a need in the community;
when you deploy several bright nursing students onto that problem,
it’s almost seamless. The community benefits and the nursing
students gain skills. I make sure that I am linking faculty, community
and students together,” Canclini said.
FROM BASS
TO THE COMMUNITY
By Andrea Hein
FEATURES
The Harris College Magazine
- 2013 ·
3