Evaluating an Online Family Assessment Activity: A Focus on Diversity and Health Promotion.

PROBLEM: A lack of exposure to diverse families and family interactions created a need to identify effective teaching strategies that emphasized diversity and health promotion in a Registered Nurse to Bachelor of Science in Nursing online transition course.

METHODS: A family assessment activity was designed to emphasize diversity and health promotion utilizing the Family Health Systems approach to family assessment and Healthy People 2020 as a framework for family health promotion. The activity was evaluated through faculty observation and student feedback, which is discussed in the article.

FINDINGS: Evaluation data indicated that students believed the activity provided a safe environment to practice assessment skills for working with diverse families, pushed them out of their comfort zones, enhanced their awareness of the need for health promotion, extended their definition of diversity, increased their cultural knowledge, expanded their personal perspectives on families, and provided them with a broader scope of nursing practice in the community.

CONCLUSIONS: Using constructivist strategies that emphasize active learning and the use of cinema to teach family assessment results in increased awareness of diversity and increased knowledge of opportunities for health promotion in families. Smith Jones.