RN-to-BSN Education, Global and Population Health Project: Think Global, Act Local (RD)

Purpose: Nursing is seen as an exemplar of how healthcare can be delivered in relation to global, national and community focused needs. Registered nurses (RNs) are well positioned to assume direct care and leadership roles based on their understanding of patient, family, and system priorities. Within the United States there are four main academic routes to achieve RN licensure they are an Associate Degree in Nursing (ADN), Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN), Master of Science in Nursing (MSN), or Master of Nursing (MN)[4]. For those who have achieved their RN Associate Degree there is a push for conversion of this degree to BSN as it is considered to allow them to function at a level practice that provides high quality care outcomes for their patients. RN to BSN programs are required achieve AACN The Essentials of Baccalaureate Education for Professional Nursing Practice. Essential VII: Clinical Prevention and Population Health helps the student develop knowledge and skills around health promotion and disease prevention at the individual and population level. There are various ways to meet these requirement in a RN to BSN program one way is to implement a Community Health and Population-Focused Health Promotion Activity.

Methods: The Community Health and Population-Focused Health Promotion Activity which the RN to BSN students undertook required them to choose a topic that addresses the National Health Initiatives, Strategies & Action Plans. From these broad health topics groups of students (3-4) developed a health promotion activity on campus which included a poster on a designated day. The poster presented the health topic and addressed why it was important globally, nationally locally and to the university community using a varied of resources specific to the question. Prior to development, students were required to do an abbreviated community assessment (the university community) how the health promotion activity task would be presented to interact and engages fellow university students and evaluation of the health promotion exercise was undertaken through a simple online survey using Qualitrics © accessed either by computers or tablets provided or by the target audience own smart phones through a QR code generated by the online survey.

Results: After the health promotion day, the planning for the project, the poster and syntheses of the data which was collected on the day was presented to their peers in class with. Further analysis of the project was done on an individual basis requiring the students to submit an individual assignment on their health promotion topic, the activity and their individual analysis of the health promotion day.

Conclusion: This activity aligns with the Community Health and Population-Focused Health Promotion Activity for RN to BSN which is a requirement for the AACN The Essentials of Baccalaureate Education for Professional Nursing Practice and is a model for alternative practice for RN to BSN curriculum.