Evaluation of a Nursing Student Health Fair Program: Meeting Curricular Standards and Improving Community Members’ Health

摘要

Public health nursing (PHN) is an essential component of baccalaureate nursing education. In order to build PHN competencies, universities must design and operationalize meaningful clinical activities addressing community and population health. Currently, there is a paucity of literature delineating best practices for promoting competency in PHN. The University of Miami School of Nursing & Health Studies has developed a PHN student led health fair program, which aims to improve community members’ health and promote competency in PHN. The purpose of this manuscript is to describe the PHN student health fair program as a means for meeting undergraduate PHN curricular standards, and to report results of an evaluation conducted examining its effectiveness in improving community member’s health knowledge. The design of the health fair program includes a community assessment, intervention, and evaluation flow that follows the nursing process. We report that results from 113 participants surveyed at baseline and immediate posttest indicated that PHN student delivered health fairs may improve health knowledge among community members’. Health fairs conducted by PHN students appear to be promising community health promotion and disease prevention interventions that can serve as an effective strategy for teaching PHN student competencies and facilitating engagement with the community.