A Descriptive Study of Service-Learning on Social Justice and Leadership Attitudes in Senior B.S.N. Students

Presenters

Lindsay Tucholski, Cedarville UniversityFollow
Janet Conway, Cedarville UniversityFollow
Rachel Parrill, Cedarville UniversityFollow

Type of Submission

Poster

Campus Venue

Dixon Ministry Center, Alumni Hall

Location

Cedarville, OH

Start Date

4-10-2013 1:00 PM

End Date

4-10-2013 5:00 PM

Comments

Abstract:

The complexity of nursing care today requires nursing students to be ready to assume high levels of professional practice at the time of graduation. Benner, Sutphen, Leonard, and Day (2010) call for a radical transformation in nursing education in order to prepare graduates for this level of practice. In considering this call for transformation, the pedagogy of service-learning (SL) embodies four paradigm shifts proposed by Benner et al. (2010). Service-learning is also proposed as a pedagogical method for educating nurses by the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN, 2009). The Essentials of Baccalaureate Education for Professional Nursing Practice (AACN, 2008) is the expected standards for baccalaureate nursing curricula. Elements of The Essentials include a focus on leadership and the development of professionalism and professional values, which include social justice. Though SL has been implemented in many educational settings across the United states, there continues to be a lack of quantitative research on service-learning to qualify it as an evidenced-based practice. The purpose of this study was to assess changes in attitudes related to social justice and leadership for students enrolled in a senior level Care of Populations' course at Cedarville University after completing a 60-hour service-learning experience. Fifty subjects completed the Service-Learning Self-Evaluation Tool (SLSET) before and after the learning experience. The findings are useful for nursing education in providing supportive evidence for the continued use of service-learning as a pedagogical method.

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