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Cultural Immersion Service Learning in Public Health Nursing
The purpose of this student-centered North American nursing education project is to prepare nursing students to be able to address the challenges of chronic illness in a cultural competent way. Online, collaborative coursework and inter-country dialogue will prepare them for cultural competent nursing practice and service learning projects designed to assist them through an educational practicum, intended to have a positive impact on the health of the North American community. The shared course will include both didactic and field work (service learning project) and will be a fully credited course at each of the six participating universities.
This collaborative program will develop nursing students’ understanding of the public health systems and population health approaches of the participating countries. Through participation in this project, undergraduate and graduate nursing students will be:
- prepared for international public health nursing practice, learning how to make a positive impact on the health of their communities, especially those populations at risk for diabetes mellitus in our three countries;
- better able to address the challenges of chronic illness in a culturally sensitive way;
- introduced to the policy-making process in both their home country and country of exchange as it relates to health care, especially health promotion activities;
- provided the opportunity to put into practice what they have learned regarding culturally competent care and intervention strategies while participating in a service-learning project in the community/region they visit on exchange.
Participating institutions, students and faculty will benefit from the variety of valuable experiences that come out of international cooperation in higher education; and the six partners have produced an online, modular international public health nurse course for North America which will serve as a positive addition to public health nursing curricula in higher education in our countries because of its emphasis on policy development and service learning.
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