VIRTUAL COMMUNITY HEALTH CLINICAL 1
Virtual Community Health Clinical Simulator
Shameka N. Nall
Western Governors University
College of Health Professions
,VIRTUAL COMMUNITY HEALTH CLINICAL 2
Executive Summary
The “The Role of the Community Health BSN” 8-week course was designed using
context-based learning that engages the learner in theory and essence. The course uses active
and collaborative learning techniques that facilitate knowledge acquisition and retention for field
application. The challenge with this course is that it needs an integrative component to fortify
the concepts of community health nursing.
This course should provide the Bachelorette nurse with a clinical experience to practice
technical and functional skills, promote confidence, and to clear muddy points. Clinical practice
sites are dwindling in the community health sector. This fact supports the need to for an
immersive clinical element to solidify an optimal student-centered learning experience.
A virtual community health clinical simulation would offer an innovative remedy to the
lack of integrative learning within the course. Evidence suggests that virtual clinicals enhance
technical and functional skills, communication, role development, and bridges gaps between
education and community health practice. Virtual clinical simulation fosters application of
knowledge and counter-measures deficiencies with self-guided solutions.
This proposal provides a thorough needs assessment, a review of evidence, a plan to shift
the status quo to a new equilibrium, and interval monitoring of the effects of the virtual
community health clinical simulation. The key stakeholders involved are identified as faculty,
students, and IT professionals of the learning institution.
Including a virtual community health clinical simulation will add meaningfulness and
value to “The Role of the Community Health BSN” course.
, VIRTUAL COMMUNITY HEALTH CLINICAL 3
Virtual Community Health Clinical Simulator
The American Public Health Association (APHA) defines Public health nursing as the
practice of promoting and protecting the health of populations using knowledge from nursing,
social, and public health sciences (1996). The themes surrounding community health relate to
principles of disease & epidemiology, community planning & intervention, disaster management,
cultural care, care of vulnerable populations and health care systems & policy. This complexed
sector of nursing requires that learning institutions cultivate meaningful, student-centered
learning experiences that will prepare them for real world application.
“The Role of the Community Health BSN” facilitates context-based learning using the
theoretical framework, The Essentials of Baccalaureate Education for Professional Nursing
Practice (2008). Essentials I through IX delineate the outcomes expected of graduates of
baccalaureate nursing programs. Outcomes achievement is enhanced by use of active,
collaborative, and integrative learning strategies that will prepare graduates to assume roles
within complex healthcare systems associated with community/public health nursing (American
Association of Colleges of Nursing, 2009). This course promotes student engagement with
various active and collaborative learning strategies. Further development of the course identifies
the need for an additional integrative approach. I propose a virtual clinical simulation experience
as an innovative learning strategy to ensure achievement of outcomes delineated in the Essentials
of Baccalaureate Education for Professional Nursing Practice (2008).
The Essentials of Baccalaureate Nursing Toolkit (2008) states that clinical
immersion opportunities for students in the practice setting support knowledge application, skill
development and refinement, role development, and transition to practice. Immersion
experiences help students develop critical thinking/clinical reasoning skills, communication
Virtual Community Health Clinical Simulator
Shameka N. Nall
Western Governors University
College of Health Professions
,VIRTUAL COMMUNITY HEALTH CLINICAL 2
Executive Summary
The “The Role of the Community Health BSN” 8-week course was designed using
context-based learning that engages the learner in theory and essence. The course uses active
and collaborative learning techniques that facilitate knowledge acquisition and retention for field
application. The challenge with this course is that it needs an integrative component to fortify
the concepts of community health nursing.
This course should provide the Bachelorette nurse with a clinical experience to practice
technical and functional skills, promote confidence, and to clear muddy points. Clinical practice
sites are dwindling in the community health sector. This fact supports the need to for an
immersive clinical element to solidify an optimal student-centered learning experience.
A virtual community health clinical simulation would offer an innovative remedy to the
lack of integrative learning within the course. Evidence suggests that virtual clinicals enhance
technical and functional skills, communication, role development, and bridges gaps between
education and community health practice. Virtual clinical simulation fosters application of
knowledge and counter-measures deficiencies with self-guided solutions.
This proposal provides a thorough needs assessment, a review of evidence, a plan to shift
the status quo to a new equilibrium, and interval monitoring of the effects of the virtual
community health clinical simulation. The key stakeholders involved are identified as faculty,
students, and IT professionals of the learning institution.
Including a virtual community health clinical simulation will add meaningfulness and
value to “The Role of the Community Health BSN” course.
, VIRTUAL COMMUNITY HEALTH CLINICAL 3
Virtual Community Health Clinical Simulator
The American Public Health Association (APHA) defines Public health nursing as the
practice of promoting and protecting the health of populations using knowledge from nursing,
social, and public health sciences (1996). The themes surrounding community health relate to
principles of disease & epidemiology, community planning & intervention, disaster management,
cultural care, care of vulnerable populations and health care systems & policy. This complexed
sector of nursing requires that learning institutions cultivate meaningful, student-centered
learning experiences that will prepare them for real world application.
“The Role of the Community Health BSN” facilitates context-based learning using the
theoretical framework, The Essentials of Baccalaureate Education for Professional Nursing
Practice (2008). Essentials I through IX delineate the outcomes expected of graduates of
baccalaureate nursing programs. Outcomes achievement is enhanced by use of active,
collaborative, and integrative learning strategies that will prepare graduates to assume roles
within complex healthcare systems associated with community/public health nursing (American
Association of Colleges of Nursing, 2009). This course promotes student engagement with
various active and collaborative learning strategies. Further development of the course identifies
the need for an additional integrative approach. I propose a virtual clinical simulation experience
as an innovative learning strategy to ensure achievement of outcomes delineated in the Essentials
of Baccalaureate Education for Professional Nursing Practice (2008).
The Essentials of Baccalaureate Nursing Toolkit (2008) states that clinical
immersion opportunities for students in the practice setting support knowledge application, skill
development and refinement, role development, and transition to practice. Immersion
experiences help students develop critical thinking/clinical reasoning skills, communication
