ABSTRACT
Many barriers to increasing enrollment in nursing programs currently exist. One barrier is increased competition for clinical site placement from competing nursing and multidisciplinary programs. A critical component of nursing educational programs is providing clinical experiences that reinforce didactic learning. Incorporating women’s health in a maternity course required clinical experiences to reflect this content. Faculty incorporated new strategies to help students integrate relevant theoretical concepts of maternity and women's health nursing by placing students in more community sites. Although labor and delivery and mother-baby units are located in the hospital, a wealth of community experiences for maternal and women's health nursing students exists. This article discusses strategies implemented by faculty at Youngstown State University to meet these challenges and promote appropriate clinical learning experiences for student nurses enrolled in a maternal-women’s health nursing course.
AUTHORS
Received: August 1, 2005
Accepted: November 24, 2008
Posted: September 25, 2009
Dr. Aurilio is Associate Professor, and Dr. O’Dell is Assistant Professor, Nursing Department, Youngstown State University, Youngstown, Ohio.
Address correspondence to Louise Aurilio, PhD, RN-BC, NE-BC, Associate Professor, 943 Dravis Ave., Girard, OH 44420; e-mail: laurilio@aol.com.
doi:10.3928/01484834-20090918-11
