Abstract
Simulation serves as a valuable augmentation to direct clinical care or practice within healthcare settings. In Community health, students spend time in a variety of agencies experiencing a variety of vulnerable populations. One issue that crosses over these populations is poverty.
The poverty rate in America is 11.1 % (Shrider, 2024).A key competency in nursing education related to population health is understanding how poverty affects patients. This simulation related to the poverty allows students to understand many people in poverty are not all homes less but live next door and may be one paycheck away from catastrophe.
The experience starts with a group of students receiving a family that is considered in poverty and experiencing issues within the various the social determinants of health (SDoH). The students are expected to determine and prioritize the family’s needs using the SDoH as a guide. They develop a budget, within the given parameters of the family’s expenses. They address and prioritize housing, job, and healthcare needs then select services in the community that could assist the family. The students then charged with going to the necessary stores using their budget to plan food and meals for a week and use the actual store prices to stay with in budget. The second charge is to use the city’s bus system to move from the given location of their family to two services offices they determined were the priority for the family and return to their starting point.
During the post brief, students are expected to discuss how they developed a family plan that is evidence based, holistic, respectful, compassionate, and coordinated. They reflect on the experience of how families in poverty face economic and logistical issues that others who do not live in poverty face.
Student stated the simulation/immersive experience contributed to being more empathetic for the patients they see. They felt it prepared them to be more sensitive to the economic and logistical issues families face living in poverty. The students gain an increased understanding of the vulnerability and complexities of living in poverty. Such increases in social empathy and promotion of social justice will inevitably positively affect their future practice. The experience meets the entry level professional nurses to define a target population, use problem solving measures, apply understanding of the public health system, develop an plan describe access and use of available resources.
Notes
References:
DeBrew, J. (2024). Transformative Learning: Changing Nurses’ Perceptions about People in Poverty. Journal of Social, Behavioral, and Health Sciences, 18(1), 222-228.
Kruse, J. A., & El Khoury, H. (2022, September). A poverty simulation to enhance nursing student knowledge, skills, and attitudes toward
people living in poverty. In Nursing Forum (Vol. 57, No. 5, pp. 851-859).
Stanhope, M., & Lancaster, J. (2017). Foundations of Nursing in the Community: Community-Oriented Practice (5th Ed.). St. Louis, MO:
Elsevier Mosby (ISBN 978-0-323-10094-6)
Turk, M. T., & Colbert, A. M. (2018). Using simulation to help beginning nursing students learn about the experience of poverty: A descriptive
study. Nurse Education Today, 71, 174-179.
United States Center for Disease Control and Prevention (2024) Social determinants of health. Retrieved December 1, 2024 from https://
www.cdc.gov/public-health-gateway/php/about/social-determinants-of-health.html
Shrider,E.A. (2024). Poverty in the united states. U.S. Census Bureau U.S. Department of Commerce. Retrieved December 9, 2024, 2024,
from https://www.census.gov/library/publications/2024/demo/p60-283.html
Sigma Membership
Nu Omega
Type
Presentation
Format Type
Text-based Document
Study Design/Type
Other
Research Approach
Other
Keywords:
Health Equity, Social Determinants of Health, Public and Community Health, Simulation, Clinical Practice, Health Promotion and Disease Prevention, Poverty
Recommended Citation
Isibel, Denise, "Poverty Experience to Address Clinical Outcomes in Community Health" (2025). Biennial Convention (CONV). 161.
https://www.sigmarepository.org/convention/2025/presentations_2025/161
Conference Name
48th Biennial Convention
Conference Host
Sigma Theta Tau International
Conference Location
Indianapolis, Indiana, USA
Conference Year
2025
Rights Holder
All rights reserved by the author(s) and/or publisher(s) listed in this item record unless relinquished in whole or part by a rights notation or a Creative Commons License present in this item record. All permission requests should be directed accordingly and not to the Sigma Repository. All submitting authors or publishers have affirmed that when using material in their work where they do not own copyright, they have obtained permission of the copyright holder prior to submission and the rights holder has been acknowledged as necessary.
Review Type
Abstract Review Only: Reviewed by Event Host
Acquisition
Proxy-submission
Date of Issue
2025-12-04
Poverty Experience to Address Clinical Outcomes in Community Health
Indianapolis, Indiana, USA
Simulation serves as a valuable augmentation to direct clinical care or practice within healthcare settings. In Community health, students spend time in a variety of agencies experiencing a variety of vulnerable populations. One issue that crosses over these populations is poverty.
The poverty rate in America is 11.1 % (Shrider, 2024).A key competency in nursing education related to population health is understanding how poverty affects patients. This simulation related to the poverty allows students to understand many people in poverty are not all homes less but live next door and may be one paycheck away from catastrophe.
The experience starts with a group of students receiving a family that is considered in poverty and experiencing issues within the various the social determinants of health (SDoH). The students are expected to determine and prioritize the family’s needs using the SDoH as a guide. They develop a budget, within the given parameters of the family’s expenses. They address and prioritize housing, job, and healthcare needs then select services in the community that could assist the family. The students then charged with going to the necessary stores using their budget to plan food and meals for a week and use the actual store prices to stay with in budget. The second charge is to use the city’s bus system to move from the given location of their family to two services offices they determined were the priority for the family and return to their starting point.
During the post brief, students are expected to discuss how they developed a family plan that is evidence based, holistic, respectful, compassionate, and coordinated. They reflect on the experience of how families in poverty face economic and logistical issues that others who do not live in poverty face.
Student stated the simulation/immersive experience contributed to being more empathetic for the patients they see. They felt it prepared them to be more sensitive to the economic and logistical issues families face living in poverty. The students gain an increased understanding of the vulnerability and complexities of living in poverty. Such increases in social empathy and promotion of social justice will inevitably positively affect their future practice. The experience meets the entry level professional nurses to define a target population, use problem solving measures, apply understanding of the public health system, develop an plan describe access and use of available resources.
Description
Student a simulation related to the poverty allows students to understand that poverty is not always seen. Families and individual who live with poverty often have difficulty navigating daily life. The simulation gives students a window into the issues that poverty face daily.