Community-based nursing education: a five-stage process.

Confronted with changing healthcare systems, nursing educators must now visualize nursing and nursing education from a different perspective. Students must be prepared to meet the needs of populations rather than institutions and form new partnerships in the community if they are to be prepared for health care in the next century. This makes communication between academia and community clinical settings essential. It is by restructuring nursing education that graduates will be prepared to function in the 21st century. Nursing faculty believe the community clinical experiences contribute to the preparation of baccalaureate nursing students for anticipated healthcare reform. The creative key to successful clinical experience is collaboration of learning strategies and experience that empowers students to expand and discover new paradigms and therefore elevate the profession.