Raising a New Generation of Empowered Nurses in Maternal-Child Health

TITLE:

Raising a new generation of empowered nurses in maternal-child health

Purpose for the program:

1) To encourage undergraduate nursing students to explore the needs of underserved childbearing women from a global perspective.

2) To introduce students to scholarly writing for professional presentations or publications.

Proposed change:

Typically, undergraduate nursing students taking courses for honors credit write a literature review or give a presentation to peers/clinical staff on a particular topic germane to the class. While these exercises are valuable, they do not challenge the students to think about nursing from a global perspective, nor do they require them to write at a professional level worthy of publication/presentation.

This program encouraged students to choose a topic related to the healthcare of underserved childbearing women in the US and across the globe. Each student chose a different topic, met together and with the author on a regular basis to complete a scholarly paper and an abstract that could be submitted to a professional nursing organization.

Implementation, outcomes and evaluation:

Students enrolled in a Maternal/Child nursing course decided on a project that would enhance their understanding of the nursing implications with underserved childbearing populations from a global perspective.  Students were asked to share resources and findings as they conducted literature reviews for their papers. The students then wrote a 200 abstract worthy of submission for a presentation at a professional conference. Finally a combined instructor/student effort resulted in submission of an abstract for presentation at an international nursing conference.

Students chose challenging topics. Some of these included: nursing care of pregnant, incarcerated women, health implications during pregnancy and delivery for immigrant woman with genital mutilation, nursing considerations for the families with surrogate pregnancies in the US and Europe, care of homeless pregnant women in the US and Europe. Students had never written an abstract prior to this class, but were successful with coaching. The abstract submitted by the instructor/student team to the international conference of Sigma Theta Tau was accepted as a poster presentation.

Implications for nursing practice:

This program demonstrates that undergraduate nursing students are able to perform scholarly activities that add to nursing knowledge prior the official beginning of their nursing career. Early guidance and encouragement may lead to novice nurses who are eager to join and contribute to a global nursing community.

Keywords:

Nursing education

Global maternity/child nursing