Nursing Students and Service Learning: Research From a Symbiotic Community Partnership With Local Schools and Special Olympics

This research is an example of a service learning partnership between a prelicensure nursing program and local school district. Through this partnership, students participated in a thoughtfully organized project that met the needs of a community and promoted the humanizing of health care education. Nursing students, under the guidance of faculty, performed required physical examinations for Special Olympics athletes who represented a wide range of age, physical, social, and intellectual levels. Research findings indicated an increase in nursing students' affective and cognitive development after this activity.