Building skills in pediatric nursing: using a child care center as a learning laboratory.

The collaborative efforts of faculty in nursing and early childhood education resulted in opportunities for nursing students to enhance their skills in the observation and assessment of preschool-age children, as well as to plan for and interact with young children in the context of health-related learning activities. A community child care center served as the field laboratory for these learning experiences. Through these activities, nursing students were able to gain valuable insights into the development and learning of young children and to clearly relate textbook material to actual child behavior. Opportunities to observe differences within a group of children of similar ages strengthened students' abilities to recognize the nature of individual differences and the implications of various developmental characteristics for nursing practice. Finally, students gained valuable experience using their observations to plan for the children's learning through play and interactions that matched their unique developmental needs.