Clinical education initiative in the community: caring for patients with congestive heart failure.

With greater numbers of chronically ill clients cared for in their homes rather than in acute care hospitals, nursing schools need to create and implement innovative strategies for experiences in the community setting. A telephone intervention program was initiated in the last semester of the medical-surgical clinical course to promote the health of patients with congestive heart failure and provide meaningful community experiences for senior nursing students. Students' journals from this semester-long clinical experience were analyzed and showed outcome benefits to both patients and students.