Using service-learning to develop health promotion and research skills in nursing students.

Health promotion skills are a key component of most nursing education programs. While many curricula center around a singular health promotion project contained in one course, this nursing program saw the opportunity to use service-learning as a vehicle for developing a range of both health promotion and research skills. This report details a service-learning research program involving second and third year nursing students. Students conducted a community needs assessment, and designed, implemented, and evaluated health promotion programs that were developed as a result of the community needs assessment. Students collected data on the effectiveness of their programs through pre- and post-test design. Once in their statistics and research courses, students analyzed the data and prepared the data for presentation, developing their research skills. Results from the community on pre- and post-tests indicated significant gains in knowledge regarding hypertension and diabetes risk factors, prevention strategies, and intent to change behavior. Student outcome data was also collected and showed students perceived they had increases in the following skill sets: health promotion, assessment, civic engagement, and research.

Student and community outcomes in service-learning: part 1--student perceptions.

Service-learning has a long and distinguished history of providing valuable experiences to students across all academic levels. Professional disciplines are well situated to provide students with opportunities related to service-learning while also providing needed health care services to communities. This article and Part 2 on pages 516-518 of this issue describe a service-learning initiative implemented in a bachelor of science in nursing program. Part 1 details students' perceptions of outcomes realized from the program, and Part 2 describes community outcomes. The purposes of the program were to enhance students' skills in history-taking, blood pressure and heart rate assessment skills, and beginning counseling skills, as well as provide the university community with blood pressure screening and counseling in a convenient and accessible location. Data on students' perceptions were collected for each semester of the program and for 1 year after students' participation in the program. Students perceived gains in blood pressure and heart rate skill performance, beginning counseling skills, their understanding of tailored client action plans, and their professional commitment to the health of the community.

Student and community outcomes in service-learning: part 2--community outcomes.

This article is the second of a two-part series reporting outcomes from a service-learning program implemented in a bachelor of science in nursing program. Part 1 (on pages 512-515) described students' perceptions of outcomes realized from the program, and Part 2 describes the community outcomes. The purposes of the program were to provide students with history-taking, blood pressure, and heart rate assessment skills, and beginning counseling skills, as well as to provide the university community with blood pressure screening and counseling in a convenient and accessible location. Data on community outcomes were collected on a continual basis during the hypertension screening and counseling program implementation. Clients were anonymously surveyed on health behavior actions taken after their screening and on the screening process. More than 700 client screenings were performed over 2 years, with positive health behavior changes being reported by clients.