Title : Developing alternative faculty led community public health nursing practicum experiences
Abstract:
Background: The Community Public Health Nursing course consists of a 2-credit didactic component and a 2-credit clinical practicum requiring 90 practicum hours for successful course completion. Students who miss scheduled practicum experiences due to illness, scheduling conflicts, religious observances, or unexpected practicum cancellations must complete make up hours. Unlike acute care clinical placements, arranging make up experiences in community public health presents unique challenges because practicums depend on the availability of community partner organizations, their operating schedules, and clinical instructors, often beyond the academic calendar. These constraints have created ongoing difficulties in providing timely and equitable make up practicum opportunities.
Purpose: This project aims to develop and implement a faculty led alternative practicum experience that provides meaningful, flexible, and high quality make up clinical learning opportunities for entry to practice nursing students when traditional community placements are unavailable.
Methods: The proposed faculty-led alternative practicum experience will focus on the care of vulnerable and underserved populations while fostering the development of critical thinking, communication skills, empathy, trauma-informed care, and public health problem-solving competencies. To ensure the experience is responsive to student needs and aligned with course outcomes, a pre-implementation survey was conducted during Spring 2026 among first- and second-semester entry to practice nursing students. The survey assessed students learning needs, motivation, identified topics of interest, and explored their preferred learning methods. Findings from the survey were used to inform the design and content of the alternative practicum experience, ensuring it provides a meaningful and student-centered clinical learning opportunity.
Results: A total of 88 entry-to-practice students participated in the pre-implementation survey, including 50 first semester and 38 second semester students. Most respondents indicated they would be motivated to participate in a faculty-led alternative practicum if the experience counted toward missed practicum hours (64% of first-semester students and 50% of second-semester students). Additionally, 50% of students in both cohorts expressed interest in participating beyond required make-up sessions to gain additional knowledge and skills in community and public health nursing. Across both cohorts, the topics of greatest interest were communication with vulnerable populations, substance use disorders and harm reduction, emergency preparedness and response, and gun violence as a public health issue. Hands-on learning activities were the most preferred instructional method (72% of first-semester students and 78.9% of second-semester students). First-semester students also favored faculty led small group learning (54%), whereas second semester students showed a stronger preference for simulation-based learning (60.5%). Reflection activities were consistently identified as the least preferred learning method by both cohorts.
Conclusions: The survey findings demonstrate strong student interest in a faculty led alternative practicum experience, particularly when it fulfills missed clinical hours while providing opportunities to strengthen public health competencies. Students preferred active, experiential learning approaches focused on contemporary public health issues affecting vulnerable populations. These findings support the development of a flexible, learner centered alternative practicum that aligns with student preferences and course outcomes, while addressing the ongoing challenge of providing meaningful make up clinical experiences in community public health nursing.
