Nursing students are advancing community health to under-resourced seniors

Nursing students are advancing community health to under-resourced seniors

Lipscomb School of Nursing Community Health students have sparked faith-based health services for local senior community.

By Janel Shoun-Smith | 615-966-7078 | 03/19/2026

Before even earning their degrees, Lipscomb nursing students are already on the front lines-delivering preventive care, health education and vital resources to neighbors through coordinated outreach, structured service-learning and sustained partnerships.

Through the Lipscomb School of Nursing's Community Health course, students today are routinely visiting local community centers to deliver health services, distribute donated supplies and engage in fellowship with participating seniors.

"These students are advocating for local seniors by addressing social drivers of health, providing access to care, collecting and donating care essentials, empowering senior communities, reducing disparities and improving continuity of care," said Roletha Pillow, associate professor of nursing, who has coordinated these efforts through instruction of the course since summer 2025.

After three semesters of highly effective collection drives, the School of Nursing is advancing plans for a dedicated on-campus storehouse as well as a coordinated, interprofessional health care model to bring multiple disciplines together to enhance senior care and health education.

When Pillow took on coordinating clinical instruction of the Community Health course, she wanted to prioritize service in under-resourced areas of Nashville, a flourishing city that still has communities facing service gaps despite its growth, she said.

In her first semester, she had only four students (the first cohort of Lipscomb's primarily online Accelerated Bachelor of Nursing program), but she found that there really can be strength in small numbers. She assigned her students various areas of Nashville and asked them to identify the community's main needs and to prioritize those needs. Students then requested donations based on information collected from residents of neighborhoods with underinvestment, concentrating their resources on the areas where it matters most.

"The students brought in so many donations that I envisioned a community where small acts of service-a preventive health screening, a delivered bag of groceries or simply sharing a board game-create a ripple effect of hope. Through sustained relationships and dedicated outreach, our students are proving that a focused team can make a profound impact on the lives of local seniors." said Pillow.

In fall 2025, Community Health students continued collecting donations but also began soliciting donations from corporations for what is now called the Lipscomb School of Nursing Mobile Community Corner Store, said Pillow.

In addition, Pillow partnered with the Hadley Park Community Center's senior program to bring her students out to the center to provide health screenings and health education, to distribute donated supplies and to engage the seniors with fun and fellowship.

"Some of these seniors live with chronic health conditions, physical limitations and/or limited access to care," said Pillow, "and they are sharing with us that the rising cost of living and rising property taxes are creating concerns regarding financial insecurity, maintaining independence and dealing with chronic health issues. We are helping them build hope again through advocacy, health promotion and building a long-term relationship.

"Others expressed anxiety due to social isolation, not feeling safe and susceptibility to financial scams. The seniors say that the students simply playing board games with them is so meaningful," said Pillow.

"We celebrated one senior participant's birthday by purchasing her a cake, and she said she was blessed to have an amazing group of people to care enough to celebrate her birthday, after losing her husband of many years. She continued by saying we brought so much joy to her on her special day."

This semester, Pillow established partnerships with the East Park and Smith Springs community centers. In addition, fundraising began this February for future construction of a storage space in the Nursing and Health Sciences Center to house hygiene essentials, household essentials, wellness and medical essentials; health education materials;, non-perishable food;, undergarments;, T-shirts; and socks, all items that the students continue to collect.

There is also an initiative in progress to integrate comprehensive community health outreach into the activities of the college's Interprofessional Education Committee, which coordinates activities to teach students in all Lipscomb's health science disciplines how to work on a care team together and to collaborate to benefit patients holistically. Such activities would both strengthen community impact and enrich the educational experience for students, said Pillow.

"Our goal is continuity of support," said Pillow. "A holistic approach deepens trust and amplifies outcomes."

Many nursing students-who rarely encounter seniors beyond acute-care settings-share that this experience has expanded their perspective on aging and the full scope of seniors' health and social needs, she said.

"As students engage in the community, they discover a depth and diversity within the senior population far beyond what they had anticipated," she said.
Pillow is working to expand the number of partnerships for future semesters, and is actively engaging in discussions with Nashville's Elizabeth Senior Center and the Nashville Rescue Missions' women and children's program.

Donate to the Mobile Community Corner Store