Service-learning projects are vital to nursing programs across the county because they provide nursing students with immersive opportunities within diverse communities, thereby allowing for practice in therapeutic communication, as well as opportunities to apply didactic knowledge in a real-world setting.1 The Care of the Childbearing Family clinical course is an undergraduate nursing course that focuses on holistic care of women and their families with an emphasis on health promotion and risk reduction. Holistic care of the childbearing population is emphasized in the course and includes a student-led service-learning project. Augmenting hospital clinical requirements, these activities provide students with the opportunity to interact with childbearing families outside the hospital, providing a well-rounded view of the needs of this population.
Service-learning projects allow students access to these unique types of learning opportunities,2,3 but dwindling in-person clinical sites continue to be a problem. Data suggest that virtual learning can be successfully applied in both didactic as well as clinical education; however, a gap in the literature exists on the feasibility of implementing virtual service-learning education. Therefore, a pilot study was conducted to determine the feasibility of hosting a virtual service-learning project.
Our school of nursing has a practice partnership agreement with the Nurse Family Partnership (NFP) to provide their clients with presentations on health promotion and risk reduction. Historically, students presented to a live audience. However, virtual sessions can save time and travel for the students and participants, while allowing access to larger numbers of participants and the flexibility to watch the presentations at a time that is conducive for them.
Planning
Developing the virtual service-learning sessions took planning and coordination for both the nursing clinical faculty and NFP. A Zoom meeting involving 2 clinical faculty members and several NFP members was scheduled to discuss the students' academic requirements and potential topics, along with dates, times, and virtual streaming options. The decision was made to present the virtual health promotion sessions in real time to a virtual audience using Facebook Live as many of the NFP participants have access to Facebook. A platform called StreamYard was also used. StreamYard, which can be purchased for $20 per month, can stream directly to Facebook Live. This combination allowed the presentations to include show slides, pictures, diagrams, and videos.
Process
Students developed virtual presentations on 4 different topics, including shaken-baby prevention, breastfeeding, perinatal nutrition, and newborn safe sleep. Questions from the virtual audience were encouraged, typed in the chat box, and addressed after the conclusion of the presentation. Three months after the completion of the student presentations, the educational videos were viewed 1906 times and shared 233 times within the NFP Facebook page. At the completion of the virtual service-learning project, students were asked to submit a guided reflection discussing their perceptions of the virtual project. Students felt positive about presenting, even virtually, as they recognized that they were helping families understand how to best care for their babies and themselves.
Conclusion
When faculty are faced with limited options for student clinical learning experiences, they need to discover new and innovative ways to meet objectives. Novel community partnerships have the potential to benefit both parties through service-learning projects. Students gain community education experience and community members gain valuable information. Although virtual presentations may not seem as rich or personal as in-person interactions, these experiences have the potential to build confidence in the students and to create a platform for engagement outside of traditional settings. The use of virtual platforms for learning and sharing has been an effective option for student engagement, and similar platforms can be accessed for expanding community service-learning opportunities.
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