The practice mission has had a great deal of success through the Healthy South Carolina Initiatives. Our diverse practices are the envy of many schools of nursing and they serve as rich learning resources and opportunities for research. At present, our mission for practice is to sustain and maintain our practices while we nurture them as student learning laboratories and find ways to make them financially self-sufficient. Our research mission is to grow. This is a brief overview of the faculty practices that contribute to the Caring for the Community Initiative.
Several practices are in established clinics and others are free-floating within the community.
The Caring for the Community initiative comprises six ongoing community-based programs that serve as learning laboratories for our nursing students and provide research and practice opportunities for the faculty and students in the college. This initiative focuses on helping individuals and communities prosper while providing community-based healthcare that is accessible and affordable. The practices enable the formerly underserved individuals in our communities to manage and optimize their quality of life. Figure 1 depicts the practices. Descriptions of each established practice follow.