Virtual community internships in the classroom: testing an intervention.

The complexity of community-oriented practice can be difficult to convey to undergraduate nursing students. A modified problem-based learning (PBL) unit with virtual nursing "internships" was tested as a means of conveying the interrelatedness of community nursing practice. A total of 184 accelerated, second-degree nursing students, enrolled in either of 2 academic quarters, participated in the quasi-experimental study. Findings indicate that modified PBL and virtual internships hold promise for teaching community nursing concepts.