Empowering recovery

Feature Stories | 06 May 2024

Queen's nursing students create nutrition course with Providence Care’s Recovery College program.

For nursing students, practicum placements offer unique experiential learning opportunities—a chance to step out of the classroom and receive hands-on learning in both clinical and community settings. Students apply their knowledge to practical situations, and gain exposure to the challenges of today’s health care.

In the Queen’s School of Nursing course ‘NURS 405: Practicum in Community Health Promotion’, nursing students work with interprofessional agencies from across Kingston and the surrounding areas, assessing, developing, and evaluating health promotion strategies.

As NURS 405 instructor and course coordinator, Sherri Schmidt-Stutzman explains: “It’s experiential learning, designed to prepare students to lead community health promotion projects in their future nursing careers.”

One of the agencies the course partners with is Providence Care, which recently welcomed three fourth-year NURS 405 students to their Recovery College program. There, the students collaborated on a community health project aimed at empowering individuals on their recovery journeys.

Providence Care’s Recovery College is an inclusive program that empowers individuals to take charge of their mental health, wellness, and recovery through education and peer support. The program, which runs out of Providence Care’s 525 Montreal Street Community Services site, offers free courses, workshops, and events, welcoming adults from all backgrounds and at any stage of recovery, including those with lived experiences of mental illness and/or addiction challenges. To blend clinical expertise with the knowledge of lived experience, all Recovery College courses are co-developed and co-facilitated with peer-supporters. Originating from a community health model in the UK, there are now twenty-five Recovery Colleges throughout Canada. Kingston’s program launched in January 2023.

Ellie Lambert sitting at a round table of desks talking animatedly with a group of students who are listening to her speak. — NURS 405 preceptor Ellie Lambert speaking with a group of Recovery College students.
Photo credit: Providence Care

“From day one in nursing at Queen's, we learn how impactful the social determinants of health are on individual and community health outcomes. Community-based organizations that empower people to develop health-promoting skills are integral to reducing the negative impact that some social determinants of health can pose,” says Emma Chow, one of the nursing students who worked with the program over the winter term. “When we received our list of placements options, Recovery College was one of our group's top choices.”

Madeline Whitten, another member of the NURS 405 student group, agrees: “I was immediately drawn to Recovery College; they have a unique philosophy to the process of recovery that reflected my professional and personal standards for what person-centred care should entail.”

For their NURS 405 project, Emma, Madeline and the third member of their group, Nestor Grandal, created a food and nutrition course. Developed with direct input from the Recovery College students, the course tackles food insecurity concerns and looks to boost participant confidence in the kitchen. The nursing group also ran a workshop where they prepared a meal with participants, sharing lessons about cooking and nutrition. It will soon expand into a 5-week class, offered later this fall.

Ellie Lambert, an occupational therapist and coordinator at Providence Care’s Recovery College program, served as one of the nursing students' preceptors, alongside fellow coordinator and occupational therapist Jenna Sands. The NURS 405 practicum course often pairs students with interprofessional preceptors like Ellie, allowing them to gain experience in team-based environments that more accurately reflect the ones they’ll be working in when they graduate.

Group photo of Ellie Lambert and Jenna Sands standing and smiling with Recovery College peer-support facilitator Beverly Johnson. — *Ellie Lambert (*right), standing with Jenna Sands (left) and one of the Recovery College program's peer-support facilitators.
Photo credit: Providence Care

“As allied health professionals, many times we are working towards the same goal and have shared core values,” says Ellie. “It is beautiful to be able to combine different lenses and approaches to best support those in our community. [The student nurses] have been instrumental in collaborating with our student body to create a course that is sustainable and will be used ongoing to support the wellness of others.”

The nursing students also emphasize that it was the input and participation of the Recovery College students that made their NURS 405 project successful. By working with community members to exchange knowledge and experience, the food and nutrition course wasn’t just educational; it was tailored and relevant to those who use the community program.

“I am still very touched when I reflect on how engaged and excited the [Recovery College] students we spoke to were, and how integral their voices were in forming the heart of our intervention,” says Emma.

“Throughout our placement and planning, our preceptors emphasized the importance of grounding our [project] in understanding the context people were living in, so that our delivery was empowering and compassionate instead of critical…I hope that I do as good of a job at embodying this in my own nursing practice.”

“I want to be the kind of nurse who makes an effort to connect with patients as a whole person, not just provide their medical care,” added Madeline. “I have witnessed the importance of human connection in facilitating recovery, and I aim to establish meaningful therapeutic relationships when caring for future patients.”

Visit Providence Care’s Recovery College website to learn more about the program.

This story originally appeared on the School of Nursing website.

Empowering recovery

Queen's nursing students create nutrition course with Providence Care’s Recovery College program.

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