Developing a sense of community among nursing students.

For beginning students, becoming a member of the nursing profession starts with experiences in nursing school. Better understanding of the experiences that contribute to sense of community for students can guide faculty efforts and curricular decisions. Using the sense of community model as a framework, the authors assessed the influence of a freshman-level class and other leadership and student organization experiences on the students' perceptions of the school of nursing as community. The authors discuss the study and its outcomes.