Apr 05, 2017

Culture of Health and Nursing Education Learning Collaborative

April 5, 2017

2:30 PM - 3:30 PM ET

The sixth monthly teleconference covered two topics: how to integrate a Culture of Health perspective into the curriculum of community college and university partnership programs, and ideas for discussions for future learning collaborative calls. Nelda Godfrey, PhD, ACNS-BC, FAAN, associate dean of innovative partnerships and practice at the University of Kansas School of Nursing, started the conversation by providing an overview of the University of Kansas community college and university partnership model. Starting with a review of curricula in the associate degree in nursing (ADN) program at the community college and the registered nurse baccalaureate curriculum at the university it was determined how to align the shared baccalaureate curriculum. Students take courses from both the community college and the university starting in their first year of studies so Culture of Health content can be integrated
throughout the program.

After the University of Kansas model was shared, several more examples were discussed including, Hawaii, California, and Minnesota. University of Hawaii has a statewide common curriculum across community college and universities. It is considering revising its statewide curriculum to incorporate the Culture of Health concepts. California has been successful with regional partnerships and each would update curricula a little differently. Minnesota is incorporating the Culture of Health into the curriculum shared by those who have joined its community college and university partnership, called MANE.

Those on the call concluded the concepts and ideas shared in this learning collaborative on how to integrate a Culture of Health perspective are relevant for community college and university partnership programs. However, they must be integrated throughout the program and not just at the end. They could be provided by the university in courses offered during the ADN portion of the program or be integrated throughout a shared curriculum.

As for future calls, participants offered ideas for topics they would like discussed, including four related to clinical experiences and one related to the practicing nurse:

  • Clinical experiences in primary care
  • Language used to discuss clinical placement; consider the term practice environment and the definition of supervision
  • Nontraditional clinical placements
  • Graduate student clinical placements and how to team undergrad and grad students
  • How to engage nurses in practice across different practice environments (Connecticut’s work)