NURSING STUDENTS TAKING ACTION: CREATING A COMMUNITY-BASED PROGRAM IN AN AFTER SCHOOL SETTING TO IMPACT CHILDHOOD OBESITY

Recent international comparisons of the health status of persons residing the United States (U.S.) with those persons in other developed countries, and their respective health care systems, reveal
that U.S. residents have a poorer quality of life and that the U.S. health care delivery models are ineffective and inefficient in addressing health issues. The foundation of modern nursing in the U.S. was influenced at the turn of the 19th century by nurses practicing in the community with an emphasis on disease prevention. Now, as we enter the second decade of the 21st century, it is time for the U.S. nursing education system to strengthen its commitment to and action with our communities to decrease risk and promote health. For nearly a decade, the faculty and students at the Kirkhof College of Nursing (KCON) have been engaged with community partners to create models of health care delivery that are responsive to the people’s needs and effective in moving persons and communities toward improved health.
The evolving partnership among KCON faculty and students with a local provider of after school programming for children in grades one through six is the newest venture in transforming the education of nursing students toward co-creating a healthy community. Our history of community engagement has moved us toward community-based program development.
As an innovative model for the education of undergraduate nursing students, this model combines service-learning and participatory action research. The partnership brings together nursing students and community service providers as co-leaders with nursing faculty as mentors to define, design, enact and evaluate an after school healthy living initiative among school-aged children. The focus on healthy living addresses the growing childhood obesity epidemic in the U.S. especially among those in vulnerable populations and communities. Throughout the development and enactment of the after school program dialogue among the nursing students, their faculty members and the community services leaders refines on-going enactment, evaluation and re-design. Pooling the resources of community wisdom with academic rigor is challenging, and yet the benefits being realized among all participants - the nursing students’ learning, the KCON curriculum, the community agency’s programming and the school-age children’s health – are rich.
This session will focus on the evolving model being employed and the outcomes being realized through such an effort.