Nursing Student-Led Health Education for Sixth Graders on Chicago’s South Side

Abstract

Introduction Partnerships between schools of nursing and grade schools providing health education to youth are shown to be advantageous. Using Community Based Service Learning for nursing students at a middle school in Chicago, IL, we were able to improve health education for adolescents in an underserved area. Objective This project aimed to improve and standardize existing health education efforts for sixth graders (n = 30) at a middle school by developing an evidence-based health education curriculum with nursing students. Methods This was a descriptive study with a pretest and posttest evaluation addressing the physical, emotional, and sexual health knowledge, attitudes and behaviors of participating sixth graders. Results Findings suggest service-learning partnerships may benefit middle schoolers and nursing students. Conclusion Implementing a culturally relevant health curriculum using a service-learning framework increased sexual, physical, and emotional health knowledge in Latinx sixth graders and enhanced nursing student learning in a way not possible through classroom and clinical practicum experiences alone.