title: Developing personal and community learning in graduate nursing education through community engagement.
abstract: Community engagement through service-learning was introduced into a graduate program in nursing education to develop student leadership skills, interest in learning, and social responsibility. With faculty expertise and guidance, students worked in partnership with underserved community agencies. The goal of sustainability was accomplished by developing faculty expertise in service-learning as a method of instruction and integrating community engagement into academic assignments within existing courses. Opportunities to reflect on the benefits of the experiences were considered crucial to bridging service to learning in the community. Evaluation findings indicate that students gained insight into community needs and resources as they moved outside traditional health care settings. Graduates increased their understanding of their role as a resource to the community, and community agencies saw the value of a nurse educated at an advanced practice level.
authors.affiliation: Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, USA. gln2@case.edu
authors.forename: Georgia L
authors.initials: GL
authors.lastname: Narsavage
authors.forename: Holly
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Batchelor
authors.forename: Deborah
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Lindell
authors.forename: Yea-Jyh
authors.initials: YJ
authors.lastname: Chen
mesh_terms: D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D002983:Clinical Competence / Q000592:standards*; D003152:Community Health Nursing / Q000193:education* / Q000458:organization & administration; D003479:Curriculum; D004511:Education, Nursing, Graduate / Q000458:organization & administration*; D017144:Focus Groups; D006301:Health Services Needs and Demand; D006801:Humans; D007857:Leadership; D007858:Learning; D008507:Medically Underserved Area; D017145:Models, Educational; D015402:Nursing Education Research; D015404:Nursing Methodology Research; D009820:Ohio; D016730:Program Development; D015397:Program Evaluation; D012946:Social Welfare; D013338:Students, Nursing / Q000523:psychology*