The New York State Nurses Association is accredited as a provider of continuing nursing education by the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Commission on Accreditation. This course has been awarded 9.6 contact hours.

Welcome! You are embarking on a journey that will build on your strengths and provide direction for the future. The journey can be self paced, individualized, and can provide you with structures, processes and outcomes that will broaden your perspective on public/community health nursing.

The above photo is available courtesy of the Visiting Nurse Service of New York.

The goal of this course is to provide a dynamic curriculum for nurses practicing in public/community health nursing. Throughout the curriculum, key themes will be competence and advocacy. At the end of each part of the course, you will find activities that you can use to help you in applying the information you learn.

Why take this journey?

Professional development is continual and provides you with the ability to see local individual/family/community in the larger context of our country and world. In public/community health nursing, understanding population-based practice is the foundation for providing care and advocacy to society.

You are familiar with the nursing model focused on caring. Simultaneously, you are working within a medical model focused on curing. As a nurse, you integrate aspects of these two models in your practice. In a similar way, this journey seeks to integrate public/community health nursing and nursing in your practice. This broader perspective allows you to view public/community health and nursing within the structures of public/community health and nursing, while integrating processes and outcomes to better serve and advocate for individuals, families and the population at large.

How is this journey organized?

This journey is organized into tours, sightseeing opportunities, key attractions and activities. You can make the entire journey by following the established road map or you can click on a particular sightseeing opportunity at any time.

Key Attractions are threads of the past that lead to the trends of the future and will be essential tools throughout the journey. The key attractions are highlighted in the introduction and will be discussed in depth in the tour.

Sightseeing Opportunities are specific focus areas designed to help you understand the foundation of public/community health and nursing.

Each tour has a group of sightseeing opportunities that will inform your nursing practice. You can take the entire tour in sequence or click on a specific tour.

Activities provide the opportunity for you to slow down on your journey and reflect on the key attractions, the sightseeing opportunities and the tours in general. These activities are interspersed throughout the tours. The more actively you apply what you are learning on your journey, the more useful this journey will be to you.

What can I expect to see on each tour?

Tour I: Historical Monuments of Public/Community Health Nursing  

This tour will help you know more about:

• History of public/community health nursing
• The core functions and essential services of public/community health services
• Legislation and public/community health
• Global, regional and local importance of public/community health
• Population based theory and public/community health
• Nursing theory and public/community health
• Socialization to public/community health nursing
• Application to your nursing role

Tour II: Landmarks of Importance in Public/Community Health Nursing

This tour will help you know more about:

• Levels of prevention
• Epidemiology
• Surveillance/tracking/data collection
• Outcomes management
• Environmental management
• Disease outbreak management
• Application to your nursing role

Tour III: Countryside Visit to Public/Community Health Nursing

This tour will help you know more about:

• Population based theory and practice in public/community health nursing
• Community assessment
• Communicable disease management
• Chronic disease management
• Application to your nursing role

Tour IV: Seaports of the Future in Public/Community Health Nursing

This tour will help you know more about:

• World view on culture, diversity and health beliefs
• Vulnerable populations
• Ethical decision making in public health
• Global safety, local safety
• Bioterrorism core competencies

Tour V: Reflecting Pools in Practice

This tour will help you know more about:

• Core competencies for public health professionals and public/community health nursing competencies
• Advancing public/community health nursing
• Life long learning

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Tour I: Historical Monuments of Public/Community Health Nursing

At the completion of this tour, the learner will be able to:

• Describe significant events in the history of public/community health nursing
• Identify the essentials of public/community health services
• Identify major legislation effecting public/community health
• Explain population theory in the development of community programs
• Explain how to apply nursing theory in public/community health program outcomes
• Compare and contrast global, regional and local public/community health initiatives
• Discuss role socialization in professional role development

Tour II: Landmarks of Importance in Public/Community Health Nursing

At the completion of this tour, the learner will be able to:

• Examine the purposes and models of Epidemiology
• Apply common health status statistics used in public/community health including appropriate rates, ratios and proportions
• Utilize levels of prevention in outcome management
• Apply environmental concepts in public/community health
• Compare and contrast disease management across health care settings
• Integrate an epidemiologic framework to the nursing role within the essential public health services:
  
  
  1. Monitor health status to identify community health problems
  2. Diagnose and investigate health problems and health hazards in the community
  3. Inform, educate and empower people about health issues
  4. Mobilize community partnerships to identify and solve problems
  5. Develop policies and plans that support individual and community health efforts
  6. Enforce laws and regulations that protect health and ensure safety
  7. Link people to needed personal health services and assure the provision of health care when otherwise unavailable
  8. Assure a competent public/community health and personal health care workforce
  9. Evaluate effectiveness, accessibility, and quality of personal and population-based health services
  10. Research for new insights and innovative solutions to health problem

Tour III: Countryside Visit to Public/Community Health Nursing

At the completion of this tour, the learner will be able to:

• Use population based theory in public/community health nursing practice
• Use community assessment in development of public/community health improvement strategies
• Apply chronic and communicable disease management principles to a specific community
• Use knowledge of community strategies in one’s own caseload management and program development

Tour IV: Seaports of the Future in Public/Community Health Nursing

At the completion of this tour, the learner will be able to:

• Define her or his own world view on cultural diversity
• Use knowledge of vulnerable populations in program planning and caseload
  management
• Apply global and local safety frameworks to the community in which they work
• Apply terrorism information to their personal and professional preparation for
  emergencies and survival

Tour V Reflecting Pools in Practice

At the completion of this tour, the learner will be able to:

• Describe the public/community health nursing core competencies
• Use knowledge of career advancement in public/community health nursing to develop a professional career trajectory