Students do make a difference.

Abstract

Nursing students and faculty in community health may often overhear a community health nurse or clinic personnel in an agency grumble, Those student nurses are so much trouble. On hearing such negative comments and complaints, one may well ask whether students contribute anything of value to agencies or clients. Further, one may wonder if students are worth the time and effort spent on them by community health nurses. As members of the community health nursing faculty at Arizona State University, we pursued answers to these questions. During a semester at our clinical agencies, 80 students make approximately 4,000 home visits (see Table 1). They have a small caseload, usually between 3 and 5 families per student, but cumulatively, their efforts reduce the heavy workload of the community health nurses in the agencies. Almost 100% of the clients seen by students fall below the federal poverty guidelines and include chronically ill individuals, families with young children and newborns, pregnant women and ...