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Related Link: IU Kokomo CampusWho would have thought a lesson in life could be learned through a seemingly simple class project. "We've been taught in life not to be judgmental, but until you're in a situation where you have to exercise that judgment, you don't really know how you will react," says Tracy Reed, an IU Kokomo nursing student who, through that one class assignment, has established an enduring link to the Amish community.
" I've come to understand and respect why the Amish believe what they do," Reed said. "Church activities and family offspring are very important to them. Jill Routt (also an IUK nursing student) and I have been able to gain their trust while providing them with some beneficial health-related information."
Reed and Routt initiated their relationship with the Amish community while taking a transcultural nursing course taught by IUK faculty member Ben Crandall, who also serves as coordinator of community health for the baccalaureate program in nursing.
"Our instructor provided us with several ideas for a community service project, but we wanted to develop our own, something that hadn't been touched on before," Reed says. "I grew up in Greentown and our family did some farming with an Amish family. I contacted them and they were receptive to the idea."
The IUK duo showed the women how to lower the fat and caloric content in Amish recipes, and they had a luncheon together with the finished product. They also provided the women with a demonstration on breast examination.
"There was some reluctance to participate at first, but after a few icebreakers, giggles broke out among the women, and, by the end, there were some pretty personal questions asked," Reed recalls. "We just explained that this necessary procedure should be done by all women and reminded them that it is done in the privacy of one's own bedroom or bathroom."
The Amish have welcomed Reed and Routt into their community. "Before trying to offer them information, it was important for us to first learn about them by attending community gatherings, quilting bees and worship services," Reed explains. "They have been highly receptive to what we've offered them, but that may be because we have made a conscious effort not to offend them and to respect their religious beliefs."
Routt describes the Amish life style as "very relaxing and tranquil." Both she and Reed were surprised to find out that the Amish do seek medical help. "But they still hold to some of their home remedies," says Reed. "Amish are very health conscious, although they do not believe in physical exercise because it calls attention to one's body. But we have talked to them about other ways to take care of their bodies, like eating healthy."
Reed and Routt's field work in an Amish community might have been a bit unusual a few years back, but today it is typical of the kinds of "clinical experience" IUK's nursing students encounter as they move beyond clinics, laboratories and hospitals to prepare for a new era in community-based nursing.
This new era is the result of a "dynamic community-need shift," says Penny Cass, dean of IUK's Division of Nursing. Sweeping changes in the health care industry, many of them related to conditions in the economy, have major implications for the nursing curriculum. As Cass points out, health screening, wellness education, preventive care and health maintenance services are areas in which 21st Century nurses will need to have expertise.
Another important factor, says clinical nursing instructor Lynda Narwold, is marketability of graduates. Providing clinical opportunities in atypical situations creates an awareness of expanding career choices and helps students gain a real competitive edge.
While the work of students Reed and Routt has forged links between IUK and the Amish community, other soon-to-be nurses have ventured out into such "clinical" settings as the public schools, senior citizen centers, shelters for the homeless and programs for pregnant teens.
When the number of pediatric patients in Kokomo area hospitals dwindled over the years, Clinical Instructor Narwold turned to the schools for her students' pediatric clinical experience. "At each of the schools," she says, "we see as many pediatric patients in one day as we saw in a whole course in the hospital setting."
The experience has been a memorable one for IUK nursing student Chris Pruitt. "From this rotation, I have now chosen school nursing as a career option," says Pruitt.
But if young people have benefitted from the new emphasis on community-based nursing, so too have the elderly. In churches, nursing homes, senior citizen centers and neighborhood organizations, IUK's student nurses are providing wellness and health screening services to older adults. This fall, they will give flu vaccinations to seniors at 35 area sites.
On another front, IUK faculty and the Student Nurses Association are continuing the efforts of three nursing graduates who initiated a health assessment and referral service at the Kokomo Rescue Mission.
The experience has been positive both for clients and for nursing students. "Our students have gained more access to hands-on experience, and people at the Rescue Mission have gained a bit of self-esteem by knowing someone cares enough to be there." Narwold says.
And just to make sure they aren't missing out on big city nursing, some IUK students have ventured beyond state borders in their quest for community-based experience. While many college-goers took in the Florida sun during spring break, nine IUK prospective nurses got a closeup look at inner city health care in New York City. Associate Professor of Nursing Nancy Schlapman, who coordinates IUK's BSN program, says the trip to the Big Apple helped students gain a deeper understanding of nursing and health care challenges of urban America.
In New York City, the IUK students worked in a nursing center, with a visiting nursing service and for the Floating Hospital, a year-round mobile health care center.
Nursing Instructor Crandall, who plans to take another group of future nurses to New York City next May, says the new era in nursing really represents a "back to the future" swing, since historically nursing's roots are in community health care.
While the health care industry has come full cycle through a period of drastic change, opportunities in nursing, as well as allied professions, are growing, and the demand for professionally educated nurses who connect with community is great.
At IUK, future nurses say they'll be like the gallant Florence Nightingale, whose name inspires their admiration. They'll carry the torch of nursing into the field, wherever and whenever health care is needed.