Aim: This presentation will: 1.) Explore the concept of community engagement as an academic process. 2.) The process of the School of Nursing becoming a community-engaged Department will be described. 3.) Using examples from international and local experiences with graduate and undergraduate nursing students in Washington, DC and in several countries around the world, we will explore the techniques of community engagement and steps (or interventions) for developing sustainable community health outcomes through creating foundations with local community partners.
The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching describes Community Engagement as collaboration between institutions of higher education and their larger communities (local, regional/state, national, global) for the mutually beneficial exchange of knowledge and resources in a context of partnership and reciprocity. The purpose of community engagement is the partnership of college and university knowledge and resources with those of the public and private sectors to enrich scholarship, research, and creative activity; enhance curriculum, teaching and learning; prepare educated, engaged citizens; strengthen democratic values and civic responsibility; address critical societal issues; and contribute to the public good (1-6).
In 2018, the School of Nursing recently was awarded a Community Engagement Grant from the Nashman Center for Civic Engagement and Public Service. The purpose of this project was to develop a strategic plan to further enhance the School of Nursing as a Community Engaged Department and to further engage our community partners in this process. Through this grant, we were to hold at least two full-day seminars with faculty and community partners over a year to increase our commitment as a School to community engaged scholarship, teaching and service. This first event was held on July 10, 2018 and attended by 25 faculty, who evaluated the event as very good to excellent. The second event will be held on Feb 1, 2019 with faculty and community partners in attendance. This presentation will describe this process and the outcomes associated with the community engagement activities. It will also present examples of community engagement activities performed by the School of Nursing students and faculty. Some examples include:
- Uganda Project: Work with community health workers to teach them topics ranging from primary to tertiary prevention, examples include: prevention and causes of hypertension, identification and prevention of communicable diseases, proper nutrition, diabetes, healthy pregnancy and potential complications, sexually transmitted diseases including HIV, preventing teen pregnancy, and hand / food sanitation. These topics were taught to community health workers (CHWs) by the nursing students during short term medical missions in Haiti and Uganda - where the undergraduate students taught CHWs how to take blood pressures and prevent and treat hypertension within their village.
- Reducing Childhood Anemia in Caracol, Haiti (REACH) Project: An anemia research project which measured anemia in a population of children in Haiti. This project’s aim was to work in partnership with community stakeholders to expand understanding of factors associated with childhood anemia prevalence and severity and to jointly develop a sustainable, community-based plan for reducing anemia in children. In this project qualitative and qualitative data were collected by interview and focus groups not only on the factors associated with childhood anemia but also on community perception of the causes of anemia.
- Photo Voice Project: This project engaged 19 middle school students from the Washington, D.C area, some from Ward 8 home to D.C’s most underserved communities, in a participatory action research project to provide them with an early understanding of the connections between the social environment, policy and a heart healthy community. Undergraduate students taught the middle-school students risk factors for heart disease, heart disease prevention, social determinants of health, photography and the ethics of photography. The students received digital cameras and went out into their neighborhoods and photographed the facilitators and barriers to heart health. Facilitated undergraduate nursing students, the middle school students used photography, analysis, collaborative investigation, and group dialogue to identify the social determinants that promoted or impeded a hearth health community. Equipped with this vital information, students learned how to frame an issue and wrote a letter to the governor, their congress person or community leader as a powerful message of how the heart health of citizens are being affected both positively and negatively by the social determinants of health within their community.
- Improving Care Coordination and Patient Advocacy in School and Community Settings for Children and Youth with Special Health Care Needs: This PCORI project 1.)created a national patient outcomes research agenda in partnership with school nurses and CSHCN that is flexible to needs of local communities yet collectively can advance child health outcomes while recognizing the school nursing as the integral context. 2.) Strengthened relationships with communities that have been under-represented in research (School nurses and CSHCN).