Community Nursing Practice in a Faculty of Nursing Health Promotion Project

Abstract

Over the past three years the Faculty of Nursing of the University of Toronto has developed a health promotion project to provide unique community practice for nursing students and to offer health promotion services to the Faculty of Nursing and to the broader university community. This project was also intended to demonstrate the role of nursing in health promotion by putting into practice within the university community some of the Faculty of Nursing's beliefs about health. A review of the literature suggested that faculties of nursing have rarely taken advantage of the health promotion opportunities on their own campuses to provide community nursing practice for their students. This article will describe the project's aims, objectives, implementation, and evaluation. Principal Objectives of the Project To provide community nursing practice Students in the project are in their final year of a four year baccalaureate program. All senior students practise in the community three days a week for a 12-week term. During this practice students work with individuals, families and, where possible, with groups and aggregates. Some students, however, have limited experience with groups and many do not practise in agencies where the needs of aggregates are addressed. Students rarely become involved in the planning, implementing and evaluating of community health programs. They are not often directly exposed to the social, political and environmental factors influencing the development of such programs. These are serious omissions in the preparation of nurses to be active participants in a health care system in which there is a growing focus on health promotion through community programs that are directed at population groups (DeBclla, Martin & Siddall, 1986). Although some writers suggest that the