Evaluation of social determinants of health in nursing education through service learning

Background: This manuscript describes an in-state nursing student global health-care experience. The 2021 Rio Grande Valley service learning team at Louise Herrington School of Nursing at Baylor University traveled from Dallas to McAllen, Texas to volunteer in a COVID vaccination clinic and refugee respite center on the U.S.-Mexican border.

Method: A competency-based evaluation utilized the American Association of Colleges of Nursing's The Essentials: Core Competencies for Professional Nursing Education Featured Concepts, with a focus on social determinants of health, as a framework.

Results: The evaluation of the service learning trip through the lens of social determinants of health and the Core Competencies can serve as a guideline for the design of future trips.

Conclusion: The Rio Grande Valley service learning trip contributed to nursing students' self-reports of competency in global health education, in identifying the social determinants of health that characterized the immigrants and refugees, and in service and advocacy.