141st APHA Annual Meeting and Exposition

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Recorded Annual Meeting Presentations (RAMP) are now available for purchase.
Only $90 for presenters, $140 for registered attendees and $200 for non-attendees.

Online Program

288204
I'll never look at things the same”: Transforming nurses through community practicum experiences


Monday, November 4, 2013

Marty Aleman, MAN, PHN, Healthy Communities (Primary Prevention), Olmsted County Public Health Services, Rochester, MN
“I'll never look at things the same” is frequently heard from BSN students finishing their community health practicum experiences. Throughout their studies, students learn about transcultural nursing theories, methods for a comprehensive community assessment and the concepts of the social determinants of health, but it isn't until they have an opportunity to actually go out into the communities and walk alongside community members to see the grass root programs which work with them, that students truly begin to develop an understanding of what this means.

Grounded in relational inquiry, Leininger Transcultural Nursing and Watson's Caring theories and complexity science, the faculty at author's institution has employed a model to guide students in their learning journey. This presentation describes this unique model as it is experienced in the community health practicum immersion setting.

The College's community health practicum experiences take students outside of their usual areas of practice and go to third world countries such as Nicaragua, Namibia as well as communities within the United States such as the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, the Phillips neighborhood in inner city Minneapolis and rural counties in SE Minnesota to learn from both a public health agency and a community perspective. Participants will learn how nursing students describe and evaluate their learning experiences as well as how their future nursing career is impacted. Community health nursing educators can learn about how to enhance and engage undergraduate nursing students through a variety of activities.

Learning Areas:

Public health or related nursing

Learning Objectives:
Describe how community health practicum experiences engage students in learning about community health issues of marginalized communities to improve their health status. Identify a transformational process in nursing students’ professional and personal lives when they participate in community practicum experiences through immersion experiences.

Keyword(s): Public Health Nursing, International Public Health

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: Marty Alemán works at a local public health department where she works on issues of health disparities in the community. Marty is also an Assistant Professor of Nursing where she teaches the Community Health nursing practicum. She received her Masters of Arts in Transformational Leadership from Augsburg College where she focused on developing and evaluating immersion experiences to teach community health nursing in Guatemala, Nicaragua and the Pine Ridge Indian reservation in South Dakota.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.

Back to: 3175.0: Teaching Cultural Competence in Nursing Education