11th Street Family Health Services of Drexel University: Partnerships With Students

• RN to BSN students are uniquely posed to take advantage of the clinical opportunities available through 11th Street. As practicing nurses, they are able to be especially significant participants in the PCBC team, because each student brings knowledge of his or her own specialty area and vast experience. In return, students are given valuable insight into the challenges and rewards of being a nurse in the community setting and are able to experience the fun and adventure of being a public health nurse.
  
• Since the inception of 11th Street, over 300 RN to BSN students have been involved in health promotion activities in the 11th Street Corridor. Students’ activities have included making friendly visits, giving immunizations, teaching about diabetes, assessing senior’s homes for fall risks, and organizing community health fairs. Students are involved in the 11th Street Corridor during both Health Promotion and Public Health Nursing.
  
• Additionally, students have the option of completing their clinical concentration in public health in the 11th Street Corridor, developing a health promotion project under the guidance of one of the public health nursing faculty. Examples of projects clinical concentration students have completed include developing a lead poisoning prevention resource manual, creating women-centered outreach materials for the Health Center, and integrating yoga into an evening exercise group.
  
• Additionally, the Helene Fuld Public Health Trust, through a grant to the Regional Nursing Center’s Consortium, provided an opportunity for five Drexel RN to BSN students to participate in an intensive leadership development program.
  
• In the near future students in the BSN co-op program will also be working at 11th Street. Students’ involvement may be through shadowing a nurse or nurse practitioner for a day, participating in a public health outreach project, or assisting in the Reach Out and Read literacy program.
  
• Here is what students have said about their public health nursing experience in the 11th Street Corridor:
  
  “I’m beginning to become more open to diverse groups and less judgmental, attempting to view things and issues from a broader client perspective. I am realizing the importance of the effect of family, culture, and environment…”
  
  “Now I can understand why my patients don’t always do what is prescribed.”
  
  “I learned how to look beneath the surface in attempting to provide practical, useful, interventions to public health problems.”
  
  “I never knew that you could do this. I want to do public health nursing!”