Striving for Health Equity Through Nursing Education: A Critical Examination of Non-traditional Community Health Placements

Morgan Magnuson; Shannon Vandenberg; Laura Vogelsang

doi:10.25071/2291-5796.162

Authors

Morgan Magnuson University of Lethbridge https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2370-775X
Shannon Vandenberg University of Lethbridge https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6735-2161
Laura Vogelsang University of Lethbridge https://orcid.org/0009-0003-2942-8166

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.25071/2291-5796.162

Keywords:

political economy of health inequities, health equity, non-traditional community health placements, community health nursing, nursing education

Abstract

Undergraduate nursing programs are increasingly using non-traditional community health placements within their curricula, though their impact on the organizations and clients they serve has not been widely explored. Therefore, this article aims to examine the use of non-traditional community health placements in undergraduate nursing programs using the political economy of health inequities as an analytical framework. We discuss the limits of non-traditional placements in addressing health inequities, suggesting our work contributes to the perception that something is being done to address the dual unregulated drug poisoning and housing crises while failing to tackle their root causes. We theorize that non-traditional health placements allow nursing programs to continue to graduate enough nurses to meet increasing workforce demands under prolonged austerity measures that have reduced funding to both post-secondary institutions and public health. Finally, we discuss strategies to mitigate harm and commit to more equitable partnerships.

Keywords: political economy of health inequities, health equity, non-traditional placements, community health nursing, nursing education

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Author Biographies

Morgan Magnuson, University of Lethbridge

Morgan Magnuson is a registered nurse and faculty member at the University of Lethbridge. Her nursing background is in public health with a focus on early childhood development. She has taught community health clinical placements at the University of Lethbridge since 2014, most recently focusing on partnerships with community organizations that serve people who use substances (PWUS). She also teaches courses in public health, harm reduction, and global health. Her Ph.D. work explores the municipal politics of harm reduction. Using a small urban site as a case study, she analyzes how intersecting political and economic forces result in policy actors discursively framing people who use substances in ways that result in varied policy responses.

Shannon Vandenberg, University of Lethbridge

Shannon Vandenberg is a registered nurse and educator in the Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of Lethbridge. Her background in public health nursing has enabled her to bring public health issues, such as harm reduction, climate change, and communicable disease control into the courses she teaches, helping students gain a practical understanding of relevant health issues in Canada and around the globe. Shannon teaches a variety of undergraduate nursing courses, including community health nursing practice, currently partnering with community organizations that serve people who use substances and those recovering from substance use. Shannon is currently finishing her PhD in Population Health Studies, completing a quantitative research study titled: An analysis of the knowledge, attitudes, and practices of registered nurses toward climate-driven vector-borne diseases. Additionally, Shannon is involved in several other research projects, including examining harm reduction services available to PWUS.

Laura Vogelsang, University of Lethbridge

Dr. Vogelsang is an Assistant Professor at the University of Lethbridge, where she teaches within the undergraduate and graduate programs. Her clinical background is in medical-surgical and rural nursing, where she maintains her bedside practice. Dr. Vogelsang’s early program of research is within the intersection of digital health technologies and the scholarship of teaching and learning for nursing students, including implementing and evaluating teaching strategies for students. Most recently, she was awarded the WNRCASN Education Research Grant along with two colleagues to explore how nursing students experience icebreaker activities in the classroom. Dr. Vogelsang has presented nationally on various nursing education topics and has been published in several peer-reviewed journals. She supports the operationalization of her programs as the co-chair of the Undergraduate program curriculum committee and is the faculty designate for facilitating program approval. Dr. Vogelsang has the privilege of delivering the newly developed ‘Praxis in the Digital Age’ course to the entire undergraduate cohort at the University of Lethbridge and strives to maintain a student-centred strengths-based approach to her teaching.

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