Achieving High Scores for Integrating Service Learning into the Nursing Curriculum

Abstract

Session presented on: Tuesday, November 19, 2013: Service Learning supports the development and implementation of community-based nursing education in the academic programs of study at Miami Dade College Benjamin Leon School of Nursing. Our goal is to bring education to life by connecting the classroom to the community needs, helping our diverse students become men and women addressing the needs of a diverse community. Both the ASN and RN-BSN programs have a service learning component. In the ASN Community Health course students complete 40 service hours: 10 hours reflection and discussion; eight hours of orientation and community ethics; two hours of smoking cessation training and 22 hours of community service. The RN-BSN requires 144 hours of Community Health Nursing clinical. Students may also earn a better grade by including an additional 20 hours of service learning. In total, students from both programs graduating in 2012 completed 11,858 service hours during the year. The service learning projects, encompassing health fairs/screenings, patient education, smoking cessation, and a multitude of other activities served more than 6,000 Miami Dade County residents last year. Several projects include a mix of ASN and RN-BSN students, with the RN-BSN students providing supervision along with the ASN faculty members. The service learning projects are funded by an AHEC grant for smoking cessation and other College and School of Nursing resources. With more than 600,000 medically uninsured residents in Miami Dade County, MDC nursing students are making a difference, one person at a time! Internationally faculty and students travel on medical missions; over 300 book bags were collected for 2012 Haitian missions while over 375 book bags with supplies were collected for the March, 2013 medical mission to the Dominican Republican.