Abstract
This article describes the development, implementation, and evaluation of an interdisciplinary undergraduate course embedded within a campus–community partnership initiative involving McMaster University School of Nursing, and three urban priority neighborhoods in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. Students worked together with community residents and faculty to address selected priority community issues identified by neighborhood members. Using the qualitative interpretive description method, the evaluation explored different partners’ (students, community residents, and faculty) perceptions of the course (SWOT analysis: strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, as well as outcomes) as a community engagement and knowledge exchange intervention. Results provide lessons learned and recommendations for future campus–community engaged courses that can be transferred to similar contexts.
Highlights
Campus–community engagement is often described as a partnership between community and university participants intended for mutual benefit: Such partnerships address the gap between scientific knowledge creation and the pragmatic knowledge needs of communities (McCormack, Buck, & McGraw, 2010)
19 community members in three focus groups (n = 6, 6, and 7), nine students, and four faculty participated in focus groups. (Note: One faculty member was interviewed individually.) Table 2 illustrates the breakdown of participants by type, including the percentage of representation from each group of the total recruited participants involved in the initiative
We considered the number of instances of similar responses that occurred in the data to determine themes and identified the sources of these instances by participant group
Summary
The first challenge is the identification of common ground that includes a real-world community problem as well as the need to develop a strong relationship between all partners to ensure there is benefit to all involved. Motivations for these partnerships are mixed (Peacock, 2012) including a true desire to contribute to communities on the part of universities, students, and faculty (Klein et al, 2011); an era of economic constraint in which universities are called to the table to demonstrate their relevance to society in concrete, direct terms Given this multitude of interests, expectations, and motivations, outcomes and what is valued from such experiences are not always straightforward, or easy to measure
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