Community participation and belonging during rural nursing placements in Queensland: a cross-sectional study

Background Rural professional experience placements for nursing students are an important strategy for strengthening the future rural nursing workforce. While social connectedness and belonging are increasingly recognised as important outcomes of rural placements, quantitative evidence examining nursing students’ sense of community remains limited. This study examined nursing students’ perceptions of belonging and community connectedness during rural professional experience placements and explored associations with community engagement, interaction and rural placement experiences. Methods A cross-sectional survey was conducted with undergraduate nursing students who had completed a rural professional experience placement within public health services located in rural and remote Queensland, Australia. Data were collected using an online questionnaire comprising demographic and placement-related items, measures of community interaction and participation, and the Brief Sense of Community Scale. Non-parametric tests were used due to non-normal data distributions. Descriptive statistics, Spearman’s rank-order correlations, Mann-Whitney U tests, Kruskal-Wallis tests, Wilcoxon Signed Rank tests, and chi-squared tests were used to analyse associations between community engagement, placement experiences, and belonging. Results A total of 153 students participated. Students reported more frequent community interaction during placement than within their home communities ( p = .007) but participated in a broader range of community activities at home ( p = .005). Placement duration was associated with greater community interaction ( p = .023) but not belonging. Female students reported significantly stronger belonging than males ( p = .009). Belonging differed according to the number of previous rural placements completed ( p = .022). Belonging was not significantly associated with the frequency of community interaction (p = .268) although was positively associated with the breadth of community participation during placement ( ρ = .188, p = .044) and within home communities ( ρ = .225, p = .015), suggesting that active participation may be more important for fostering belonging than exposure alone. Conclusion Belonging during rural nursing placements is shaped through the interaction of placement exposure, community participation, and repeated rural experiences. While exposure creates opportunities for engagement, belonging is most strongly associated with participation in community life. Supporting meaningful community participation may strengthen belonging and enhance future rural workforce capacity.