Teaching Baccalaureate Nursing Students to Practice in Primary Care Settings

Abstract

Background: The Affordable Care Act of 2010 emphasized the importance of primary care and preventative services as core components to promote the health of the U.S. population. Method: A unique program was created for baccalaureate nursing students to provide learning and practice experiences in primary practice sites that emphasized chronic disease prevention and management, including mental health and substance abuse services. Students were selected using a holistic approach. Results: Students were selected to participate in the project. A community leadership advisory board was created. Students were assigned to the Veteran Administration's primary care clinics for their clinical experiences. Conclusion: This project is well-developed to increase the knowledge of present and future RNs, interprofessional providers and educators, researchers, and policy makers in community-oriented primary care. [ J Nurs Educ . 2021;60(3):129–135.]

Assessment of Primary Care Content in a Nursing Curriculum

“…Our school of nursing was not able to add an additional primary care nursing course and set a goal to have every student learn this content. This is a similar situation in many other schools of nursing across the United States 3,14 . We needed a way to understand our current state and develop a plan to integrate the primary care content into our already existing undergraduate courses.…”

“…This is a similar situation in many other schools of nursing across the United States. 3,14 We needed a wayto understand our current state and develop a plan to integrate the primary care content into our already existing undergraduate courses. Our intention was to determine where we were already successful and where we needed to focus our future strategies.…”

“…14 Changes in the curriculum are needed to foster academic partnerships that move away from the acute hospital model and treatment of illness to a community and population health-based preventive model. 3,9,14 Strategies for Integration From our assessment, we created an implementation plan that included these areas: (1) engage faculty with primary care expertiseto serve as champions, (2) offera primary care faculty development series, (3) offer preceptor and clinical faculty education, (4) invite all faculty to integrate one new primary care area into both their didactics and clinicals, and ( 5) host an interprofessional primary care fair and showcase primary care opportunities for health care professionals. Our implementation strategies will use reporting at faculty meetings, newsletters, and partnerships with RNs in practice to codevelop these activities.…”

“…2 Nursing contributions in primary care are critical for quality care outcomes and patient-centered care. 3 More specifically, primary care nurses play a pivotal role in preventive health, positive health outcomes, care transitions, and chronic care management. 4 In response to the complexity of patients and the need to increase access to care, health systems have reimagined models of ambulatory care delivery such as the patient-centered medical home.…”

“…The American Academy of Ambulatory Care Nursing published a position statement that highlighted that RNs are needed to enhance patient safety and the quality and effectiveness of care delivery and are essential in the primary care setting 2 . Nursing contributions in primary care are critical for quality care outcomes and patient-centered care 3 . More specifically, primary care nurses play a pivotal role in preventive health, positive health outcomes, care transitions, and chronic care management 4 …”