BSN students mark end of year 1, give reports in community health class

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (Dec. 17, 2014) – “What we do every day is about helping our communities live healthful lives; outreach like this puts a powerful focus on that mission.” Such comments echoed from tabletop to tabletop as students in Daytona State College’s Bachelor of Science in Nursing’s benchmark Community Health Nursing course gave their inaugural project reports in the last week of class.

Judith Valloze, assistant chair for the RN to BSN program, said, “This first community health class performed beyond our expectations,” reaching hundreds of people with important needs-based messaging. The mandatory course focuses on students assessing a community to determine healthcare needs, then developing and delivering an outreach project which addresses the issue, all while working with a BSN-prepared nurse.

Projects included students working on smoking cessation in their community; developing programs and brochures on breast-cancer awareness, heart health and prevention of falls; working with vulnerable populations related to substance abuse; addressing needs of medically fragile children by creating an electronic Volusia County Resource Guide; putting on a health fair with patient education for parishioners in three local churches; developing a No Texting and Driving campaign; using parts of the CREATION healthcare acronym to help medical staff with stress; and educating a rehab-center community on Ebola. All projects involved an interdisciplinary approach to care, where the students worked with other members of the healthcare team to develop well-rounded projects.

The community health class of 41 students, all registered nurses working at healthcare institutions, are part of the first BSN cohort that concluded its first year this semester, with some students expected to graduate in May 2015.

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