Community service and learning are a valuable component of a comprehensive collegiate education. Campus Compact,1 the national higher education association focused on campus-based civic engagement, reports a decadelong rising commitment to service, service learning, and civic engagement in higher education. Through a variety of approaches, community engagement connects students to the greater community, expands their social consciousness, and lets them reap rewards not possible in traditional course activities. This perspective aligns with The National League for Nursing's2 call to prepare nursing students as global citizens who gain insight into the interdependence of social, economic, and political systems.
Many educators3,4 advocate using opportunities that promote the pairing of thinking and doing as a method of teaching that moves beyond memorization of theory to application. The American Association of Colleges of Nursing5 espoused values of altruism, human dignity, social justice, and a mandate for curricular attention to health promotion and disease prevention, which are also a ready fit for student participation beyond the classroom and in the community.
In nursing education, nutrition is a basic science prerequisite, which is then threaded throughout the nursing curriculum. In this instance, the theoretical concepts of nutrition gain meaning when considered in the social context of the homeless population where steady access to nutrition is lacking. Concepts of social justice and health disparities as they relate to social conditions such as poverty and homelessness are vital to understanding community needs and delivery of care to aggregate populations. Students encounter vulnerable populations within the community and are challenged to apply nursing science and theory in unstructured environments.6,7 In order to assist students in developing the cognitive, practical, and affective skills required in such environments, many colleges and schools of nursing use service learning as either part of the formal curriculum or as adjunct experiences.7 Furthermore, students are encouraged to demonstrate competencies in public health nursing, which include evidence of commitment to social justice, the greater good, and public health principles.8,9
To expand students' learning beyond the classroom and traditional settings, baccalaureate nursing students were involved in a meaningful community service project, a multidisciplinary community gardening project. Since the National Student Nurses Association (NSNA) serves to "convey the standards, ethics, and skills that students will need as responsible and accountable leaders and members of the profession,"10 the gardening project involved members of the SNA on our large, metropolitan, research-intensive university campus.
The Garden Project
Following an approach suggested in the community garden literature,11 faculty from the College of Nursing at the University of Toledo joined faculty from various departments (Art, English, Philosophy, Public Health and Homeland Security, Women's and Gender Studies, and Environmental Sciences, as well as the Eberly Center for Women, the Office of Latino Initiatives, and the Student Society of Environmental Education to plan and implement an outdoor classroom community garden. The garden space was intended not only as a multidisciplinary space for "hands-on" education to enhance traditional classroom education, but also to foster a sense of community, provide opportunities for interdisciplinary collaboration, and provide students with a practical opportunity to build on previous knowledge.
The idea for the garden itself did not come from college of nursing students; a multidisciplinary faculty group initiated the process of obtaining permission to use the land from the university administration. A steering committee composed of interested faculty, advisors, and student representatives continues to meet on a monthly basis to discuss overall maintenance issues that may arise and to formulate goals for the continued use of the campus garden space. At present, a college of nursing class advisor sits on the committee and serves as a liaison to the SNA. The SNA members receive steering committee updates as part of regular student monthly meetings.
Students from the SNA embraced the opportunity to participate in the community garden purely as a service project not associated with defined objectives. Student participation was flexible based on their availability and interest. Students who recently had a clinical rotation at a local homeless shelter recognized the heavy reliance on processed foods and the absence of fresh foods in the menus available at the shelter and readily connected this to concepts of poverty, nutrition, and energy density.12 The decision was made to donate the garden's produce to the homeless shelter. The garden planting was planned to maximize the production of greens and fresh vegetables not available on the usual menu rather than flowers or native plant selections chosen by students in environmental science or arts programs.
Reinforcement of other classroom theory on the need to assess the environment for risks, including soil contamination by heavy metals, especially in older cities,13 was also provided for the students when the garden soil was tested for lead, and the results indicated produce from the garden would pose no hazard. This provided students with the opportunity to assess health risks, assist in data collection, and interpret basic data, all of which are expected competencies for the baccalaureate student in community health.8
The garden proved to be amazingly productive with the location of ideal sun exposure. A downside, however, was lack of tool storage sites, requiring students and faculty to bring simple tools such as gloves, spades, and trowels with them. Since this was difficult for students, faculty advisors attempted to coordinate these needs as much as possible to facilitate student participation. Faculty also served as a liaison to students to communicate important timelines for planting, weeding, and harvesting. The need for water for the gardens was addressed with a seepage hose system funded by a collaborative grant from the University Women in Philanthropy organization. This gave students an opportunity to see the role of community and professional organizations in facilitating service projects. Finally, the environmental science department assigned some garden organization activities to department teaching assistants, which greatly facilitated teamwork and the cooperative work of students from several other colleges and departments to maintain other plots within the large community garden area.
Our school admits undergraduate students to the major in spring, summer, and fall semesters. The biology department generously lent greenhouse space so students in the spring semester could work in the greenhouse in February and March (Figure 1). This allowed an earlier start to planting and tending of some vegetables.
Students in the summer and the early fall semesters participated in the weekly harvest and delivery of several bins of produce each week to the kitchen staff of the homeless shelter. An SNA bulletin board kept students informed of workdays and provided a place for photographs of the garden; additionally, SNA committee chairs for service projects kept an active e-mail contact list for volunteers.
Faculty Assessment
Engagement in service is time well spent. Students gain from working with others toward common goals and reap concrete benefits of a cooperative effort. Through service to others, our students contribute directly to their community and address an assessed health need for a local population for improved dietary intake. They directly were able to see how their involvement benefited others. Members of our targeted community are provided more nutritious food choices and have the aesthetic enjoyment of eating fresh produce. Although this project was not formally integrated into a nursing course, it provided numerous examples to illustrate classroom concepts of collaboration, caring, and health promotion and allowed students and faculty to form collegial connections among themselves and the greater campus community. Faculty also build more personal relationships with students and gain satisfaction in students understanding the social context in which community nursing may take place. An apt description of the rewards is described by a participating faculty member who shared, "Many times during garden planting or weeding sessions, students asked for clarification of theory concepts or asked questions about professional role development as they neared graduation. This was an opportunity to personalize mentoring. It also was delightful to get to know students personally while working and laughing together in the garden setting where they felt at ease and relaxed."
Student Assessment
As the gardening experience evolved, students informally reported stress relief as well as satisfaction in watching the garden plantings develop through the greenhouse, planting, and harvesting stages. Pragmatic demonstrations of dedicating time and the need for suitable conditions to nurture a garden occurred. One student wrote, "Not only has gardening been stress relieving for me, it has been a fantastic experience." The concept of nurturing the community through their gardening efforts is reflected in the following comments: "I was proud of my work, because I knew that the plants that we were growing were to help those in need at[horizontal ellipsis] the mission." "It's rewarding to see plants grow from the tiniest seed and bloom into an opportunity for someone who needs it the most."
The history of nursing also became relevant to students. Discussion occurred of how Florence Nightingale changed the world of nursing through simple actions, like changing linens. The students became aware of how her attention to such detail could be compared with the students' simple, but crucial, nursing action of providing healthy nutritional components to the diet of the local homeless community. Lillian Wald's commitment to focus on the community, its assets and its needs in the urban setting, became more real through their involvement in the community. Finally, complex environmental contexts were illustrated to students through their participation. Students learned, for example, how local grown produce reduces urban air pollution. One student stated, "The environment has always been something important to me that I keep in the back of my mind at all times. Working in this garden not only allowed me to reduce my carbon footprint slightly, but also feed those in need in a green way."
Implications for Nurse Educators
Service learning has been described as means for student exploration of their role as citizens responsible to society.14 Community program planning is a basic competency in community health nursing. The evaluation component of a service learning project designed and planned to fill specific community needs is more fully demonstrated to students through participation. Abstract concepts such as process and outcome evaluation can become more relevant and well understood through experiential learning. For those wanting a more structured type of project like this one, it can be readily integrated into a community health nursing course with formal objectives, structured teaching and learning strategies, and a process for formal evaluation. Garden project participants could be engaged in reflective writing, written assignments, and action research about related concepts such as vulnerable populations, health risk reduction, nurse advocacy, political action, and ethics. Many of the community garden projects in other colleges have been remarkable in their quality and obvious student interest. Other nurse educators can gain tangible benefits of interdisciplinary conversations and pedagogy that capitalizes on service learning.
Conclusion
Facing shrinking fiscal resources and competition for learning sites, faculty are striving for meaningful ways to build core competencies in students. Likewise, providing learning opportunities that allow students to connect to community settings and collaborate with others is integral to their role development. We hope that our positive experience provides inspiration for other faculty and students to consider community gardening as a viable endeavor. The produce serves a good, but our experience suggests that it is just one part of the "harvest" yielded through a community garden project.
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