Advancing health policy in nursing education through service learning

Knowledge of health policy is an increasingly important aspect of nursing p ractice and education, especially as nurses strive to improve the rapidly c hanging health care delivery system. At the same time, many educators, rese archers, foundations, and government officials are touting the benefits of service learning. In particular, service learning offers ways to enhance pa rtnerships between academia and community agencies and to extend learning b eyond the traditional classroom. We present a model for educating nurses as advanced practice nurses in health policy that links service learning with a framework for the political development of nurses. Under the rubric of s ervice learning, the curriculum is based on the overlap among health policy , the role of the nurse as consultant, and community-based care. After disc ussing the importance of health policy for graduate nursing education and r eviewing the essentials of service learning, we describe a three-semester g raduate sequence in health policy service learning. The focus is on the cli nical and classroom components of both individual and group practica and th eir relationship to stages of nursing's political development. The article concludes with evaluation considerations and the implications of our work f or nursing theory, research, practice, and education.