O’Neill, M., (2016) integrated the American Association of Colleges of Nursing’s Essential of Baccalaureate Education for Professional Nursing Practice and the service-learning pedagogy to develop a capstone policy course. The article describes the integration of hands-on experience into the curriculum rather than an instructive approach to teach nursing policy courses. Students were exposed to an actual policy-based environment and took on the role of nurse consultants to address system-based problems from their clients. Service-learning projects were distributed to community partners to meet the authentic needs of the community and for the students to gain the perspective and foundation of a policy-based service-learning project. Course activities such as consultation exercises enabled students to be exposed to different policy-based environments and promoted professional networking in their field. The policy-focused service-learning engaged students in policy-level thinking, promoted social responsibility, and civic engagement to meet the challenges and changes of the healthcare system.
O’neill, M. (2016). Policy-Focused Service-Learning as a Capstone: Teaching Essentials of Baccalaureate Nursing Education. Journal of Nursing Education, 55(10), 583-586. doi:10.3928/01484834-20160914-08