Community Toolbox - Bringing Solutions to Light CTB Guides South Carolina Nursing Students' Grant Proposals
Dr. Charlene Pope, a professor in the College of Nursing at the Medical University of South Carolina
Even though anatomy, kinesiology, anesthesiology and other medical topics may not be particularly easy for nursing school students to understand, knowledge in these areas is expected from a nurse once he or she starts working in the medical field.
On the other hand, knowledge in areas such as grant writing, outcome indicators, and needs assessments may not be expected, but in reality, is just as important as understanding a patient's needs.
Charlene Pope, PhD, MPH, CNM certainly agrees that public health knowledge is a must for nursing students. Pope, an assistant professor with the Medical University of South Carolina's College of Nursing, uses the Community Tool Box (CTB) as a required text in her Community Health Program Planning course.
"Many of the students in the class are not accustomed to public health models," Pope said. "A lot of times, they have never been out of the hospital or ambulatory care systems and they need to attach to an agency to better understand these public health models. There are not the same set of rules, like there are in an institution like a hospital."
Students in Pope's class form a partnership with a community organization and explore a health problem that the organization is trying to address. Using the resources they find on the CTB, each student is required to write a grant that is left with the community organization with the possibility of submission. For the CTB information on grant writing and obtaining financial resources, see Chapter 42: Getting Grants and Financial Resources, and the "Writing a Grant Application for Funding" toolkit in the "Plan the Work" section of the CTB.
"Last year, about one-fourth of the grants were funded," Pope said. "But even if they weren't funded, everyone comes out with a marketable skill."
The types of organizations and health challenges vary among the students, which results in the use of a variety of the CTB sections. For example, one nursing student needed to identify a hygiene related problem with negative consequences. "This idea of identifying a problem was no different than what is covered on the Tool Box," Pope said. See Chapter 3, Section 1: Developing a Plan for Identifying Local Needs and Resources.
This particular student referred to sections on doing a SWOT Analysis (See Chapter 3, Section 14: SWOT Analysis: Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) and used research tactics (See various sections in Chapter 31: Conducting Advocacy Research) to negotiate with the school administration the importance of investing time and efforts into preventing and combating childhood obesity. After researching the issues, the student completed a grant requesting funds to purchase playground equipment.
"The Community Tool Box speaks to planning at any level," Pope said. "It is an amazing tool to use if you are in health, the arts, education or any other planning field."
Pope also acknowledges how the CTB caters to grants and research on small and large scales. One student's grant for $500 from a small private foundation aimed at securing equipment for an organic garden at an elementary school to be used to improve nutrition knowledge in kids. In order to complete this grant, the student used the CTB to find information on the overall grant writing process (See Chapter 42: Getting Grants and Financial Resources), conducting interviews with stakeholders at the school and in the community (See Chapter 3, Section 12: Conducting Interviews; and Chapter 7, Section 6: Involving Key Influentials in the Initiative), creating a strategic plan for the project (See Chapter 8: Developing a Strategic Plan), as well as meeting a national mission that aims to improve children's health (See Chapter 46, Section 8: Incorporating Activities/Services in Organizations with a Similar Mission)
On a larger scale, one student used similar tactics and grant writing information to apply for a Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) grant (http://www.hrsa.gov/default.htm). The student, who was working with a local college, was seeking $500,000 to expand a small rural community health center by adding a distant satellite clinic in an even more sparsely populated area. Both organizations, the elementary school and the college planned on submitting the grants.
"The course really teaches students how to work with a coalition and how to better understand the collaborative process and the organization that is needed in community health," Pope said.
The Community Health Program Planning course has become popular among Pope's peers and community organizations alike. "We end the course with a grant presentation by each student. Every year it is packed," Pope added. "Other faculty are referring other students, with or without public health backgrounds, to the course. [And] preceptors from the community who collaborated with the students report accessing the [Community Tool Box] site on their own."
Community organizations also want to get their hands on the resources that these students provide. "The local school district contacted me this year and said, 'We want access to that class'," Pope said. "The process that teaches you how to plan is what is really valuable in the Community Tool Box."
Related Tool Box Sections
Chapter 3: Assessing Community Needs and Resources
Chapter 7, Section 6: Involving Key Influentials in the Initiative
Chapter 8: Developing a Strategic Plan
Chapter 31: Conducting Advocacy Research
Chapter 42: Getting Grants and Financial Resources
Chapter 46, Section 8: Incorporating Activities/Services in Organizations with a Similar Mission
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