Abstract
An innovative collaborative partnership between bachelor of science nursing (BSN) students and local public schools was developed in response to a call for increasing awareness of colorectal cancer (CRC) screening in Michigan's underserved populations; through this partnership, community health nursing students provide health education for middle- and high-school aged students who became colon health ambassadors and delivered important messages about the importance of colorectal cancer screenings for their significant others age 50 and older. At the completion, the program reached approximately 1,800 school-age students and their family members. The program provides nursing students with unique service-learning experience while improving their theoretical knowledge and clinical skills in health disparities and community health nursing. The purpose of this article is to describe the development and implementation of this community-academic collaboration and discuss the evaluation of educational outcomes as community health nursing experience.
Acknowledgments
This work was supported by a competitive state funding through the Michigan Public Health Institute.