Access to Excellence - College of Health and Public Affairs ...

UCF Nursing in the Community1 2 3Until recently, traditional nursing educationwas based in hospitals. In the 1980s, majorchanges in health-care reimbursement led todramatic changes in learning environments fornursing students. The amount of care providedby hospitals decreased, while care byoutpatient facilities increased. In addition,the employment of unlicensed personnel toassist professional nurses increased.These changes greatly reduced the numberof opportunities for nursing students to learnand gain experience in hospital settings.“Community-based nursing education” grewfrom the need to expand the parameters oftraditional nursing education — and to ensurethat students have rich learning experiences.In 1997, the School of Nursing expanded itsundergraduate program to include learningopportunities in the community. Students nowgain clinical experience in many health-caresettings, including 306 hours of practice in thecommunity and 519 hours in hospitalsor similar agencies.Eleven towns and cities in Central Floridacurrently provide settings for community-basednursing education for UCF students: Apopka,Bithlo, Cocoa, Englewood, Parramore, PineHills, Oak Ridge, Melbourne, Merritt Island,Sanford and Winter Park. Although thesecommunities vary in ethnic composition andlocation, they share limited access to healthcare and have large numbers of medicallyunderserved residents.In each community, the School of Nursingcollaborates with an agency that providesspace for a Community Nursing Center.Each center is managed by a nursing facultymember and serves as a base of operationfor collaborative projects between facultymembers, students, neighborhood residentsand organizations. Together, they assess thehealth and health-care needs of a communityand subsequently develop, implement andevaluate programs to meet those needs.Community Nursing Centers provide UCFstudents with opportunities to observe, developand practice skills that are indispensable tothe nursing practice. These include problemsolving,critical-thinking and psychomotor skills.The students work directly with clients with adiverse range of health problems and assess,plan and implement individual-care activities.The experience enables them to transfertheir knowledge of theory to practice, developteamwork skills and help clients improvetheir health.By providing students with opportunities to gainexperience in both community clinics andhospitals, the School of Nursing is educatingexpert generalist nurses who are well-preparedto practice nursing in a variety of settingsincluding, but not limited to, hospitals.8