Community Health Nursing was another class where I was unsure what to expect. I really didn't understand what the concept of community nursing was. The image I had in my mind was of a nurse working at the Health Department, or maybe a school nurse. I was unaware that community health nurses help to plan and implement interventions to improve the quality of health for citizens.

Part of the course-work for this course involved students "choosing" a community and investigating problems that the chosen community faces. I thought at first that this was a complicated process, but after spending time with my chosen community, I quickly identified several problems which many of the people shared.

This course meant a lot to me both professionally and personally. Professionally, I feel that I got a real glimpse into my own community and that I can use the information that I gleaned from them and apply it to patients that I care for at my place of employment. Personally, I feel that this community helped re-affirm my belief that people are good. In my chosen community of Meals on Wheels patrons, they do not have much money. Many of them struggle with not just buying food, but even affording things that most of us take for granted such as having a vehicle and utilities which work and function properly. Despite these hardships they face, I have not met such a group of open and giving individuals such as these prior to this experience.

When I thought about how I could help solve the problems faced by my chosen community, I had a chance to brainstorm and think of a program that I would want to initiate to help combat their issues. This project was the "MAP-IT" project, and I felt I learned a lot about what it would take to research viable solutions and then implement interventions for a whole community. Along with the "Global Health Care" course, I felt that these two courses in combination really helped to expand my thinking beyond caring for an individual patient.

I look at my community nursing course along with my service learning experience as one of the courses where I learned not just about nursing, but about how as a nurse, I can be a benefit to my own community while simultaneously benefiting from it.