Community health nursing is a field of nursing that is a blend of primary health care and nursing practice with public health nursing. I understand that the purpose of our community clinical is to learn what community nurses do. So far my clinical professor has lectured us about the roles of a community nurse and we have looked at the charts of the patients we were assigned.

One experience that stood out in my community clinical was when my professor had us walk around the community of the CNR facility.  At the end of our first clinical, we all walked a few blocks around the CNR building. My professor pointed out various stores and buildings. He told us that the stores and buildings provided information about the community. My professor pointed out this apartment building that used to be a hospital and a school for nursing. On the apartment building it still had engravings that said, “training school for nursing”.  Just from seeing the terminology that was used, I could tell that was a really old nursing school. No nursing program these days claims to be “training” you.  That building to me provided a piece of history about the neighborhood.

Another thing my professor pointed out was a pet food store.  The pet food store told us that the residents in the community must have a decent amount of money. Pet food is expensive. It can be more costly than buying food for humans.

I was grateful that my professor showed us around our clinical’s neighborhood. It provided me with information on the community.  As a community health nurse it is important to know about the community that your patient’s reside in. When you are informed about your patient’s community, it allows you to know what resources are available for your patient.  These resources can include transportation, stores, service centers and health care providers.