Expanding Clinical Models of Nurse Practitioner Education: Service Learning as a Curricular Strategy

Nursing Faculty Perceptions of Service-Learning: An Integrative Review

BACKGROUND

Nursing faculty plays a central role in facilitating service learning experiences, yet little is known about their perceptions of service-learning.

METHOD

Whit-temore's and Knafl's method for integrative review was used to analyze sources from CINAHL, ERIC, MEDLINE Complete, ProQuest LLC, and ScienceDirect.

RESULTS

Literature about nursing faculty perceptions of service-learning was scarce. Therefore, a thematic analysis was completed on 17 diverse sources regarding general faculty perceptions.

CONCLUSION

Limited research was discovered related to nursing faculty perceptions, exposing a gap in the literature. Further research may clarify the role of service-learning in nursing education. [J Nurs Educ. 2018;57(10):584-589.].

Use of Service Learning to Increase Master's-Level Nursing Students' Understanding of Social Determinants of Health and Health Disparities

INTRODUCTION

It is important for graduate-level nursing students to be competent in the issues involved in the social determinants of health and health disparities and have the tools to address them as graduates.

METHOD

As part of a nursing workforce diversity program, master's-level nursing students were required to participate in a service learning project exposing them to an issue not directly linked to health-long bus rides for students as a result of school consolidations-to achieve educational goals and objectives while providing a service to an advocacy agency.

RESULTS

Eighteen students completed the project, providing the advocacy agency with firsthand accounts about the impact of long bus rides and in-depth reviews of literature on the topic and laws and regulations of other states.

CONCLUSION

These results further support providing nursing students opportunities to fully engage with multicultural communities to gain a broader understanding of health disparities and social determinants of health.

Use of Service-Learning to Teach Health Literacy with Online Graduate Nursing Students

To meet Healthy People 2020 goals, health literacy must be included in health care program curricula. In a fully online graduate nursing course, an innovative service-learning activity asked students to collaborate in the creation of low-literacy patient education pamphlets for practice partners at a community rehabilitation facility. Involvement with community stakeholders such as support groups and interprofessional team members enhanced interdisciplinary educational outcomes. Through this innovative project-based activity, students were able to meet the clinical education and decision support needs of rehabilitation patients while translating academic coursework to support actual community needs.

Cultivating the Role of Nurse Practitioners in Providing Primary Care to Vulnerable Populations in an Era of Health-Care Reform

The evolving role of nurse practitioners (NPs) as primary care providers, especially for vulnerable populations, is central to the debate regarding strategies to address the growing need for primary care services. The current article provides policy recommendations for leveraging and expanding the historic role of NPs in caring for vulnerable populations, by focusing on three key policy levers: NP scope-of-practice regulation, distribution of the NP workforce, and NP education. These policy levers must go hand in hand to build a sufficient and equitably distributed NP workforce, to help meet the escalating need for primary care in an era of health-care reform.