“Nursing Students Assaulted”: Considering Student Safety in Community-Focused Experiences

• Providing information to nursing student and faculty on personal safety, instituting specific safety measures, and enhancing communication have led to no further instances of violence against nursing students.
• Acknowledging the potential safety risks to students and faculty is important to the development of effective strategies to minimize risk.
• Policies and guidelines can assist in increasing program transparency around the issue of student safety.
• Consultation and collaboration with the university's safety and security department, office of risk management, and undergraduate provost office is an important strategy to creating effective guidelines and polices that are supported by the university.

Community nursing experiences for undergraduate students have progressed beyond community-based home visits to a wide array of community-focused experiences in neighborhood-based centers, clinics, shelters, and schools. Our Bachelor of Science in Nursing program chose to use sites situated within neighborhoods close to campus in order to promote student and faculty engagement in the local community. These neighborhood sites provide opportunities for students to deliver nursing services to underserved and vulnerable populations experiencing poverty and health disparities. Some of these neighborhoods are designated as high crime areas that may potentially increase the risk of harm to students and faculty. There is a need to acknowledge the risk to personal safety and to proactively create policies and guidelines to reduce potential harm to students engaged in community-focused experiences. When a group of baccalaureate nursing students was assaulted while walking to a neighborhood clinic, the faculty was challenged as how to respond given the lack of policies and guidelines. Through our experience, we share strategies to promote personal safety for students and recommend transparency by administrators regarding potential safety risks to students engaged in community-focused fieldwork activities.