Mary Breckinridge meets healthy people 2010: a teaching strategy for visioning and building healthy communities

In both midwifery and nursing education, it is essential to include innovative teaching strategies that address the health of communities. This article presents a creative learning activity for midwifery and/or nursing education that integrates Mary Breckinridge’s historical example with today’s national goals for building communities. The establishment of the Frontier Nursing Service in 1925 is an excellent example of the Mobilize, Assess, Plan, Implement, and Track (MAP-IT) framework for building health communities. Advanced practice nursing and midwifery students can use this historical template to implement their ideas for building healthy communities today.