Implementation of the essential elements of service learning in three nursing courses.

The students' creativity, enthusiasm, energy, and excellent planning skills made a tremendously positive impression on the community agencies that participated in this project. The students applied principles of: Epidemiology, including collecting meaningful descriptive data. Community and family intervention. Community partnerships. Leadership. Cultural competence. As students visited the homes of families of different ethnic and socioeconomic status than themselves, perhaps the most poignant outcome was the opportunity for students to experience cultural sensitivity, relativity, and accommodation-Implementing the essential elements of service learning provided the foundation for a successful service learning experience. It took the time, energy, and commitment of all involved, but the end result was an educational experience that benefited students, faculty, and the community. Service learning presents an effective, unique, and valuable means for nursing students to master the objectives of community health, leadership and management, and pediatrics courses, and to prepare to function in a health care environment that demands partnering with the community to use resources more effectively to promote public well-being.