Moving Toward Reconciliation: Community Engagement in Nursing Education

The integration of community engagement learning experiences in nursing education promotes a commitment to social responsibility and service. A nursing department implemented learning experiences for undergraduate nursing students across five semesters in churches, schools, and community agencies. Focus group data and selected stories from undergraduate and graduate nursing students, nursing faculty, and community partners provided lessons for establishing effective academic-community partnerships. Lessons learned included: 1) time and academic expectations are constraints, 2) being in the community requires flexibility, 3) working side by side develops relationships, 4) the community teaches faculty and students, and 5) the learning curve needs to be recognized. The lessons learned provide guidelines for nursing faculty and community partners in creating and sustaining partnerships that contribute to educating nurses for practice in a diverse society

Engaging Communities in Nursing Education

This article highlights the efforts of a nursing program at a faith-based university to implement community engagement learning experiences in an undergraduate curriculum with the aim of preparing nurses to contribute to reducing health disparities, value cross-cultural efficacy, and develop a commitment to serving diverse populations.  Students participated in community engagement learning experiences over five semesters in the same community organization, which was either a church, school, or other organization that served diverse populations.  Both survey and focus groups were used to determine community partner, student, and faculty perceptions of community engagement learning experiences over the five semesters. Implications of evaluation data were used to revise both the structure and process of community engagement strategies.  Revisions included strengthening orientation strategies; offering additional support for students in establishing relationships in their community organization; providing guidelines for communication between students, faculty, and community partners; and creating a plan for faculty oversight of student experiences