Abstract

Advocacy is at the heart of nursing practice, and advocating for the social determinants of health (SDOH) is crucial when providing care to patients from vulnerable populations. Service-learning is a strategy that can be used to teach students advocacy skills. Chapter 2 of this dissertation portfolio presents a concept analysis that explores the definition of advocacy using the Walker and Avant method (2019). The concept analysis informed the development of the case study presented in Chapter 3 and the research study presented in Chapter 4. The portfolio includes original, qualitative research that was guided by the interpretive descriptive method. The aim of the study was to explore the impact of service-learning experiences on nurses’ ability to advocate for SDOH in vulnerable populations. Participants were divided into two groups: one group participated in service-learning while the other group did not have a service-learning experience. Interviews explored participants’ nursing care for patients from vulnerable populations and included reflections on the case study. Certain findings were consistent with published literature while other findings provided new insights. Unique findings included service-learning participants’ responses regarding structural conflicts related to SDOH and examples of creative strategies to address SDOH. Service-learning participants also approached nursing care from a more trauma-informed, person-centered perspective than the non-service-learning group and exhibited greater sensitivity to vulnerable populations.

Date of publication

Fall 11-18-2025

Document Type

Dissertation

Language

english

Persistent identifier

http://hdl.handle.net/10950/4897

Committee members

Dr. Beth Mastel-Smith, Dr. Brittany Murley, Dr. William Sorensen

Degree

PhD in Nursing

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