Using digital storytelling to teach RN-to-BSN students about public health advocacy in local community contexts

Statement of the problem:  Providing a meaningful learning experience that conveys public health principles and the concept of social determinants to RN-to-BSN students oriented to individual-level care in clinical settings can be challenging.  Also, bridging disconnects between matters of social justice and health outcomes requires learning opportunities that compel students to think beyond pre-conceived perspectives and personal lived histories.

Approach:  Objectives for a RN-to-BSN community health nursing course calls for students to examine population-level health and nursing practice outside of clinical settings, and understand health professionals’ responsibility to participate in public health advocacy.  To accomplish this, students were trained on basic videography and computer-based media editing to produce a digital story of a public health issue affecting local, marginalized communities.

Product/outcome:  Partnering community-based action organizations led students on land and boat tours of Seattle neighborhoods along an EPA Superfund-designated waterway for first-hand views of how socio-ecological factors create environmental health threats for lower-income communities of color.  Seeing how didactically-presented content plays out in the real-world, students captured footage for their digital stories.  While creative freedom was encouraged, students were instructed that digital stories would be given to the community-based action organizations for policy advocacy and community engagement.

Implications:  This service-learning assignment was transformative by re-focusing students’ understanding of illness to consider multi-level, upstream societal factors.  The course was enhanced by infusing an unconventional digital arts component to enliven traditional didactic content.  And, community-based action organizations were supplied with media resources to aid their advocacy agendas to address public health concerns.