Teaching epidemiology: an experiential strategy.

Helping students understand and apply epidemiological concepts can be a challenging aspect of teaching an undergraduate community health nursing course. To assist students, an experiential assignment was developed that required them to conduct epidemiological investigations of buildings on campus. Students were required to assess nine environmental areas, identify overall risk factors, and determine possible causes of a fictitious syndrome. The university's Environmental Health and Safety Department used the results of their investigations to correct problems.