Nursing in the Community opened my eyes to a concept of nursing care I had

never really imagined. This course outlines how nursing care and the
concepts of nursing are applied in our environmental surroundings and all
aspects of American communities. This course also focuses on another
foreign concept at this point in our education in that it looked at applying
health care and nursing interventions to large masses of people in a quick,
timely manner rather than individuals.
One of the largest focuses of the
course was assessing the
communities around us and ones we
resided in, informing ourselves of
what health services and programs
were available in our own areas. We then
analyzed the current situation to
determine in what ways we may
better service our communities and
large populations of people, different
from what we were already doing. Preventative care programs and additional
screening seemed to be necessary in many areas while focus seemed to shift
to prevention rather than treatment. This course also analyzed how other
components of the community such as politics, socioeconomic status, and
region of living affected the health outcomes of those certain populations of
people. This course also contained a clinical component which contained a
focal point primarily outside of the hospital setting. Although many of the
locations we visited were still health care facilities, they operated in many
contrasting functions than your typical acute care setting. Personally, I spent
multiple days in home health care, a St. Joes outlet at the mall which
focused on prevention, an adult daycare with an inpatient Alzheimers unit
connected to it, and local schools. These experiences broadened my
perspective of what opportunities exist when determining a career path in
the field of nursing.