Addressing the community/public health nursing shortage through a multifaceted regional approach.

Despite increasing needs resulting from emerging societal and health care issues, the number of trained community/public health (C/PH) nurses in the United States is facing a precipitous decline. Numerous factors contribute to this shortage including an aging workforce, a poorly funded public health system, inconsistencies in C/PH nursing educational approaches and opportunities, and a shortage of sites for clinical training. Determined to address the C/PH nursing shortage in their region, a consortium of public health professionals, university deans and faculty, and state nursing leaders in southeastern Wisconsin came together to address these issues from three perspectives: (a) curricular analysis and redesign, (b) expansion of clinical placement opportunities, and (c) paid community/public health nursing internships for seniors in baccalaureate nursing programs.

Competency-based project to review community/public health curricula.

Changes in the delivery of community/public health (C/PH) nursing have challenged nursing educators to seek innovative ways to ensure that their educational programs produce competent entry-level practitioners. This article describes how public health professionals and faculty from eight regional colleges and universities in Southeastern Wisconsin came together to better understand both what C/PH nursing content was being taught in the region, and the extent to which that content was aligned with the Public Health Nurse Competencies defined by the Quad Council in 2004. Based on self-reporting by nursing school faculty as well as a separate mapping of course objectives into the competency areas, the project found that the curricula of the participating colleges and universities adequately addressed most of the competencies in the Quad Council domains one through six.

Videoconferencing expands nursing students' cultural realm.

Nurse educators struggle to provide culturally diverse community health clinical placements that cultivate cultural awareness, knowledge, and competence among baccalaureate nursing students. Public health nurses observe that many new nursing graduates lack the fundamental knowledge, skills, and affective behaviors necessary to work with culturally diverse populations. To address this, nursing faculty from two schools partnered to strategize, design, implement, and evaluate a community health assessment project using the instructional method of videoconferencing.

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.