The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA

Abstract #55981

George Shuster, DNSc, RN, university of new mexico: college of nursing, nursing pharmacy building, albuquerque nm, NM 87131, 505-272-5612, gshuster@salud.unm.edu

Teaching public health nursing at the undergraduate level can be a challenge. This is particularly true for distance education where the lack of face-to-face contact requires new approaches to teaching Courses using software such as WebCT provide opportunities for educating students “in-place” but also present challenges. This presentation describes one strategy for teaching community assessment using WebCT.

One significant challenge for Web based public health nursing faculty has always been how to teach Community Assessment. Community assessment is a crucial part of public health nursing coursework yet it is a difficult challenge for students to learn how to do a community assessment and for faculty to teach it. Students in this public health nursing course are required to identify a community of need and to do a community assessment that includes: defining the community, assessing the community; developing a community level nursing diagnosis; putting together a plan of intervention and a defining how their intervention would be evaluated. The use of specific worksheets in a step by step process provided the framework for student efforts. Data collection in the community combined with the use of online, pre-existing databases provided information for the assessment process. Periodic submission of completed worksheets as attachments via e-mail created a mechanism for ongoing feedback and direction by clinical instructors to students living in distant communities. Students found the worksheets helped to keep them on track while faculty used the worksheets to monitor student progress throughout the semester.

Learning Objectives:

• At the conclusion of the session, the participant will be able to:
• 1. Identify and list the three most frequently identified barriers for WWW-based distance education students conducting their own community assessments.
• 2. Discuss the use of worksheets in each step of the community assessment process.
• 3. Analyze how the use of worksheets in the community assessment process would be useful in their own public health nursing courses.

Keywords: Community Health Assessment, Technology

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.