Content evaluation of social determinants of health and cultural fluency to measure nurse practitioner application in clinical situations

Academic-clinical partnerships demonstrated sustained learning experiences for nurse practitioner students to apply concepts of social determinants of health and cultural competency learned in classrooms. The purpose of this project was to evaluate concept mastery and clinical application of social determinants of health and cultural fluency in NP students, while assessing the impact of ACPs as clinical settings on student performance in this area. Students were evaluated by clinical preceptors at mid-semester and final semester time points in academic-clinical partnerships or non-academic-clinical partnerships clinical settings on concept mastery of social determinants of health and cultural fluency. Students in both settings had better final evaluation scores for social determinants of health and cultural fluency. Yet, students in non-academic-clinical partnership settings performed better than academic-clinical partnerships on cultural fluency scores at midterm and final evaluations. Findings suggest the expansion of advanced practice educational curriculum to include evaluation measures for cultural fluency and social determinants of health. Diverse clinical assignments provide immersion experiences that incorporate the application of expanded content into clinical situations.