Ideas for community nursing clinicals

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Hey, all! My instructor has asked us for a list of ideas for clinical experience within the community, such as spending a day at Red Cross. I thought of the usual health fair booth, but I am having trouble with thinking of other ideas. Any suggestions? Thanks!:nurse:

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Contact your County Public Health office and see what they have going on.

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How about flu shot clinics? Or well-baby immunizations at a community health center?

I just went for my employee flu shot and students were giving the injections. Even if you were only allowed to observe, it could be a valuable experience.

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What about the local women's shelter, or homeless shelter? Unfortunately, those populations can have high healthcare needs. It's certainly beneficial as a student to learn more about abuse, mental illness, addiction, poverty, etc. firsthand as you will encounter these issues in your nursing career (regardless of setting).

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Specializes in Community, OB, Nursery.

If there is a community health center (not the same as a health dept, but has some of the same services and receives funding from some of the same places) in your area, you might try contacting them to see if you can shadow. They do all kinds of things. Here is a resource to see if there is a CHC close to you.

http://findahealthcenter.hrsa.gov/Search_HCC_byAddr.aspx

If there's no CHC close to you, the county health department would be worth contacting. That's where I did my community health clinical. I did a couple weeks in the STD clinic, a couple in well-child, and a couple doing home visits for at-risk children. I learned a lot and for the most part I liked it.

School nursing is also a form of community nursing that you could look into by contacting your local school district. That might be interesting too.

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Specializes in Nephrology, Cardiology, ER, ICU.

When I did my ADN to BSN I did ride alongs with our emergency response system crisis workers who assess the mentally ill in crisis situations. Very interesting.

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My class is assisting with school health screenings.

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Observe an Alzheimers unit or a senior citizens center.

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Specializes in Family Medicine.

Here is somethings we did at my CC:

-We went around with the public health nurse for a day visiting moms and their babies

-We went to the day care at the community college for a day to interact with children

-We went to the senior center for a day to interact with older adults

-We attended various support groups in the community: Parkinson's, fibromyalgia, NAMI, AA, AlAnon, etc.

-We attended fitness classes for people with arthritis (an aquatics class) at the park district

I hope your instructor finds something interesting for you guys!

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Specializes in Peds, Med-Surg, Disaster Nsg, Parish Nsg.

I am a parish nurse and have had several students shadow me for a day or two as I deal with folks out in the community or assist with BP clinics. I've also had students prepare and teach classes on various health topics such as nutrition for senior adults.

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Specializes in ER, SANE.

I just got home from a soup kitchen for my community clinical. Another interesting one was an urban high school medical clinic...alot of pregnancies & STDs there. We are also going to a tobacco control meeting, county infection control center, a dialysis clinic, & home hospice.

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For my community clinical we worked with a local Head Start program that serves the children of migrant farm workers. We taught the kids about certain health/safety topics like dental care and fire safety. We also did a presentation for the parents about dental health and nutrition.

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