Engage! Vol. 5, No. 3


BE BETTER TOGETHER

21

PAPER 6

Be Better Together: Importance of Institution 
and Network Building
Kim A. Decker
PHD, RN, CNS Clinical Associate Professor 
IU School of Nursing Bloomington

Catherine M. Sherwood-Laughlin 
HSD, MPH, MA Clinical Professor
IU School of Public Health Bloomington

Suzanne R. Allen, Ms
Director Of IU Corps
Indiana University IU Corps

Networking is the "action or process of 
interacting with others to exchange information and 
develop professional or social contacts" (Momentum 
Management Consulting, 2022). Network building, 
related to public health nursing, involves the process 
of bringing people, with common interests, together 
to accomplish specific tasks or goals related to 
addressing a public health need. To ensure the 
network building process is implemented to meet the 
tasks or goals, it is imperative that the information 
shared with appropriate and relevant colleagues 
piques their interests and desires to support the public 
health need. This manuscript describes a community-
based public health nursing intervention and the 
process of building a network to support the goals of 
the project (Indiana University School of Nursing 
Bloomington, n.d.).

In 2015, the Indiana University Bloomington 
(IUB) School of Nursing (SON) received a donor gift 
with the task of creating an interprofessional 
community health education project to meet the 
health needs in south central Indiana. 

 The project leaders reached out to already 
established community and academic partners to 
gauge interest in collaborating on the implementation 
of a needs assessment and the development of an 
intervention based on the results.  The outcome was 
the development of an advisory committee that 
included individuals from social service agencies, 
schools, health care, county 

health departments, along with faculty, students and 
professional staff from nursing, public health, brain 
and psychological sciences, education, and social 
work. The primary result from the needs assessment 
were concerns around substance abuse and a need for 
more mental health resources. Since 2015, the 
advisory committee has served to support the 
implementation and evaluation of substance use 
prevention and mental health programs in rural 
school-based settings. To date, the program has been 
implemented by 201 college students from multiple 
degree programs in six county school systems 
reaching over 6,637 elementary-level students.

 The advisory committee continues to meet 
monthly to support the efforts of the SON's 
implementation and evaluation of the program in 
schools. The committee specifically provides 
feedback about the implementation of evidence-
based programs, successes and challenges 
implementing the program in schools, ensuring the 
information and skills the students learn are 
developmentally relevant, and address current trends. 
Over time, new members have joined the advisory 
committee based on the results of the evaluations and 
in-depth discussions to ensure the sustainability of 
the program. 



One example is the addition of an expert in 
rural health and community capacity building from 
the IUB Center for Rural Engagement.  This allowed 
the exploration of securing additional funding to 
provide the financial support of IUB graduate student 
interns and purchasing program materials to provide 
the program at no cost to the school corporations. 
Another example was the addition of a doctoral 
student from the School of Education to support the 
needs related to classroom management, a significant 
challenge for the facilitators.  The CRE's 
Unconference led to the expansion of the team 
through a conversation between the advisory 
committee's chair and the IU Corps Director to 
develop a plan to recruit additional college students 
from other disciplines to be trained as facilitators and 
become part of the interdisciplinary team 
implementing the program in fall 2024. 

 The longevity of the advisory committee and 
the continual recruitment of members from related 
disciplines to join the committee have supported the 
sustainability of the program.  These efforts have 
provided educational opportunities for youth in rural 
elementary schools to learn about the negative 
outcomes of substance use and learn skills to 
support their mental health. The initial funding from 
a donor to the IUB SON has led to the 
implementation of a program that addresses the 
health and wellness needs of rural youth. 

References

Indiana University School of Nursing Bloomington. 
(n.d.). Outreach. Improving the health of our 
communities: Dr. Anita Aldrich community 
health promotion project.
bloomington/outreach/index.html 

  Momentum Management Consulting. (2022, 
  November 4). What is Networking? 
  Momentum Management Consulting Blog. 

PAPER 6

BE BETTER TOGETHER

The longevity of the advisory
 committee and the continual 
recruitment of members from 
related disciplines to join the 
committee have supported 

the sustainability of the 
program.

22

Susan Sciame-Giesecke
Professor and IU Vice President for Regional Campuses 

and Online Education

https://nursing.iu.edu/bloomington/outreach/index.html