An Innovative Exchange Model for Global and Community Health Nursing Education.

Understanding different cultures is important in the education of nursing students who will become the health care workforce of our future interdependent and globalized societies. International practicum courses help students and nurses understand different cultures. This article describes an innovative approach to nursing education and understanding diverse cultures, in the context of a hybrid course (online course coupled with face-to-face practicum experiences), which enrolled nursing students from opposite hemispheres.

"Me and my computer": emotional factors in online learning.

This study focused on nursing student perceptions of sense of community in the online classroom. Using qualitative analysis of data gathered from five student focus groups, themes related to the affective domain in online learning were identified: aloneness, anonymity, nonverbal communication, trepidations, and unknowns. This article provides detailed examples of student experiences under each theme and suggests that greater attention to the affective domain is needed, particularly in asynchronous online learning.

Collaborative design and use of an agency feedback form for student clinical practicum experience in community/public health nursing.

Evaluation of students in community and public health (C/PH) nursing clinical practica is a challenge, especially when preceptors are expected to evaluate students from different academic nursing programs. The need for a standardized student evaluation tool was identified during federally funded collaborative meetings held between C/PH academic and practice partners in Northeastern Wisconsin. This article focuses on the development and appraisal of the standardized Agency Feedback Form (AFF) for Student Practicum Experience in Community/Public Health Nursing, which was designed to meet the identified need.

Spread the word, not the germs: a toolkit for faith communities.

A volunteer workgroup of public health personnel and parish nurses in Wisconsin collaborated to develop the Infection Control and Emergency Preparedness Toolkit for the Faith Community to help prepare congregations for health emergencies and prevent the spread of disease. This article reports a pilot study of the toolkit with 30 parishes/churches, focusing on the infection control portion of the materials.