Faculty perspectives on transitioning public health nursing clinical to virtual in response to COVID-19.

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the need for public health nursing as an integral part of a strong public health workforce. However, it has also created challenges in preparing future nurses as much of nursing instruction, including clinical experiences, needed to urgently transition learning to a virtual environment. This paper describes the process faculty experienced during spring 2020 to quickly transition public health nursing clinicals from in-person to virtual learning in response to COVID-19. Further, faculty lessons learned are shared and include the importance of creating a supportive team dynamic, embracing innovation, continuing to engage with community partners, and adapting to meet emerging student needs during the evolving pandemic. The process and lessons learned may act as a guide for other nursing programs as we continue to navigate nursing education during this and future pandemics.

Improving access to diabetes care in an inner-city, community-based outpatient health center with a monthly open-access, multistation group visit program.

OBJECTIVE: To describe the development and implementation of a multifaceted program in an inner-city healthcare center designed to improve access to care and empower patients to take a more active role in managing diabetes. PROCEDURES: AHC is one of 30 outpatient health centers in the Ambulatory and Community Health Network of the Cook County Bureau of Health Services. AHC serves a predominantly African-American population with four full-time-equivalent primary care providers treating approximately 700 diabetes patients with >450 waitlisted patients, many with diabetes. Budget constraints limit capacity to add providers. In January 2005, open-access, multi-station group visits were implemented to improve access to care and empower patients to take a more active role in managing diabetes. The program is called Diabetic Rewards Issued Via Everyone (DRIVE) Day. Elements include: 1. group visits held monthly; 2. patient-selected activities, including diabetes education, nutrition, exercise, group discussions and Q&A sessions; 3. provider support, including implementation of evidence-based guidelines for glycemic, lipid and hypertension management, retinal screening, foot exams and medication adjustment; and 4. web-based patient registry FINDINGS: Of the clinic's 737 diabetes patients, 294 (40%) have attended > or =1 DRIVE Days, for a total of 775 patient encounters between January 2005 and October 2006. CONCLUSIONS: In an environment with limited resources, DRIVE Day has improved access to care, provided an opportunity for diabetes patients to take a more active role in their care and enabled providers to see a higher volume of patients and offer efficient, comprehensive care.