Practicum nursing students spread STI screening message

By Colleen MacPherson

Kristin Knibbs, assistant professor in Nursing, with STI screening materials. Photo by Colleen MacPherson.

Although it was not a traditional practicum placement, six senior U of S nursing students jumped at the chance in late spring to join with a local non-profit organization to try to make positive changes in the health behaviour of young people.

Working with the Sexual Health Centre Saskatoon (formerly Planned Parenthood), the students prepared a marketing campaign encouraging people to be screened for sexually transmitted infections (STIs), explained Kristin Knibbs, assistant professor in the College of Nursing. This fall, the result – a series of stark black and red posters promoting screening – will be placed on bathroom stall doors around the city, including some on campus. According to Knibbs, the experience of the students illustrates the innovative teaching and learning opportunities being developed in the College of Nursing.

“Because of the growing number of students in the (nursing) program, we’re challenged to find non-traditional clinical experiences for them,” she said. “In the Community Health Nursing course, a traditional public health experience would mean placing students where public health nurses work, but there just aren’t enough of those spaces. That’s why we’re looking at partnerships with non-profits like the Sexual Health Centre.”

The students spent their time applying the basic principles of commercial marketing to a social marketing campaign, said Knibb, who supervised the three-week project. Both aim to influence behaviour, but rather than focusing on purchasing decisions, the students’ campaign was looking to affect STI screening rates. Saskatoon, she added, has “some of the highest rates of STIs in North America…(so) if you can raise awareness about screening, it creates opportunities for treatment that may not have otherwise existed.”

The nursing students did market research, employed focus groups and worked with designers on the posters. At the end of the practicum, the Sexual Health Centre “got materials that maybe it wouldn’t have ever had the resources to do otherwise” and the students learned “how social marketing can be a valuable tool in helping change behaviour.”