1 - Community and Prevention-Oriented, Population-Focused Practice Flashcards
A community is concerned about the threat of bioterrorism. Which of the following best describes the basis for this concern?
a. ) Bioterrorism has the potential to dissolve community-based programs.
b. ) This threat could cause the health care system to collapse.
c. ) The threat of bioterrorism may divert funds from other public safety health care programs.
d. ) Fear of bioterrorism will increase the need for shelters.
c.) The threat of bioterrorism may divert funds from other public safety health care programs.
Bioterrorism may have an impact on the availability of resources for public safety health care programs. Because funds are diverted it is possible that community-based programs would be eliminated, the health care system could experience changes, and that there would be an increase in the need for shelter. However, all of these things would happen because of the diversion of funds.
A PHN develops and implements local public health policies through partnerships with agencies, organizations, and consumers within the community. Which of the following core public health functions is being used?
a. ) Assessment
b. ) Prevention
c. ) Assurance
d. ) Policy development
d.) Policy development
Policy development deals with developing and implementing health policies.
Prevention is not a core function, assurance is making sure essential services are available, and assessment refers to systematic data collection.
The nurse manager makes sure that the staff members who work in a local clinic are competent in their job responsibilities. Which of the public health core functions is being demonstrated?
a. ) Assurance
b. ) Assessment
c. ) Prevention
d. ) Policy development
a.) Assurance
Assurance refers to making sure a competent health care workforce is available. Prevention is not a core function, assessment refers to systematic data collection, and policy development refers to the need to provide leadership in developing health policies.
The PHN analyzes data related to the number and type of United States Environmental Protection Agency air quality standards that a community failed to meet. This data is an example of using which community health profile indicator?
a. ) Sociodemographic characteristics
b. ) Health status
c. ) Health risk factor
d. ) Functional status
c.) Health risk factor
Health risk factors discuss proportions of populations who have particular health conditions or health risks; breathing air of poor quality is a risk to health. The number and proportion of people is a sociodemographic characteristic. Health status includes birth and death rates. Functional status refers to reports of good health status by members of the population.
A population is best defined as a:
a. ) high-risk group.
b. ) those interacting within a school or institutional setting.
c. ) collection of individuals who share at least one common characteristic.
d. ) geographical location within a community.
c.) collection of individuals who share at least one common characteristic.
A population or aggregate is a collection of individuals who have one or more personal or environmental characteristics in common. High risk groups, school or institutional setting, and geographical location within the community all describe types of populations, not the definition of population.
A PHN has been prepared at the graduate level. Which of the following activities should the practitioner be able to complete?
a. ) Teach public and community health nursing
b. ) Assess and intervene successfully at the aggregate level
c. ) Diagnose and treat disease and have prescriptive authority
d. ) Run for political office as experts in public health policy
b.) Assess and intervene successfully at the aggregate level
According to the Consensus Conference, specialists should have assessment skills that allow them to intervene at the aggregate level. Public health practitioners have a broad range of practice areas within public health and are not limited to only nursing and medicine.
The PHN compares the rate of teenage pregnancy in various areas of the city. Which of the core functions of public health is being implemented?
a. ) Assurance
b. ) Assessment
c. ) Prevention
d. ) Policy development
b.) Assessment
Assessment refers to systematic data collection, which this nurse is doing for teenage pregnancy. Prevention is not a core function, assurance is making sure essential services are available, and policy development is needed to provide leadership in developing policies.
The nurse is investigating environmental health problems caused by contaminated ground water. Which of the following types of nursing practice is being used?
a. ) Community-oriented
b. ) Community-based
c. ) Policy development
d. ) Tertiary care
a.) Community-oriented
Community-oriented nursing emphasizes the prevention of disease and disability. Community-based nursing practice is a setting-specific practice whereby care is provided for clients and families where they live, work, and attend school. Policy development seeks to build constituencies that can help bring about change in public policy. Tertiary care focuses on highly specialized medical care.
A nurse is conducting vision screenings on children in the school setting. Which type of nursing practice is the nurse performing?
a. ) Community-oriented
b. ) Public health
c. ) Community health
d. ) Community-based
d.) Community-based
Community-based nursing practice is a setting-specific practice whereby care is provided for clients and families where they live, work, and attend school. Community-oriented nursing emphasizes the prevention of disease and disability. Public health nursing focuses on the care within the community as a whole. Community health nursing focuses on the health status of individuals and the effect of their health status on the community as a whole.
A nurse is working in a community health nursing practice setting. Which of the following is the nurse most likely to implement?
a. ) Administrating a flu shot to a client in a physician’s office
b. ) Conducting a flu shot clinic at a community center
c. ) Performing a client assessment in a hospital
d. ) Providing supervision of staff in a rehabilitation center
a.) Administrating a flu shot to a client in a physician’s office
Community health nursing practice focuses on the health of individuals, families, and groups and the effect of their health status on the health of the community as a whole. Administrating a flu shot to an individual is the only example that meets this criterion. Performing a client assessment focuses only on individual care and not the community. Providing supervision of staff does not focus on the community. Conducting a flu shot clinic at a community center focuses on protecting the community as a whole and would be considered public health nursing practice.
A public health department is using the mission of public health as described by the Institute of Medicine when planning its health programming. Which of the following activities will most likely be implemented?
a. ) Tracking avian flu outbreaks and doing surveillance in the United States
b. ) Providing a flu shot for an elderly person at the health department
c. ) Keeping track of alternative therapies in use in the United States
d. ) Keeping snake antivenom at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta
a.) Tracking avian flu outbreaks and doing surveillance in the United States
The Institute of Medicine’s stated mission on public health is “to generate organized community and technical knowledge to prevent disease and promote health.” Tracking avian flu outbreaks and doing surveillance applies this concept at a population level. Providing a flu shot for an elderly person only addresses individual care. Keeping track of the use of alternative therapies does nothing to prevent disease or promote health of the population. Keeping snake antivenom is aimed at disease care for an individual, not health promotion or disease prevention.
The purpose of public health core functions is to:
a. ) clarify the role of the government in fulfilling the mission of public health.
b. ) ensure the safety of populations in receiving quality health care.
c. ) provide community-based individualized care to every person in the United States.
d. ) unite public and private providers of care in a comprehensive approach to providing health care.
a.) clarify the role of the government in fulfilling the mission of public health.
As defined by the Institute of Medicine in its 1988 report The Future of Public Health, assessment, policy development, and assurance are core functions at all levels of government for the purpose of clarifying the government’s role.
To better address emerging public health issues, a PHN plans to complete continuing education in this area. Which of the following content areas should be included in the course that is chosen?
a. ) Leadership
b. ) Ethics
c. ) Communication
d. ) Finance
b.) Ethics
Public health workers should be educated in eight content areas to be able to address emerging public health issues and advances in science and policy: (1) informatics, (2) genomics, (3) cultural competence, (4) community-based participatory research, (5) policy, (6) law, (7) global health, and (8) ethics.
A public health department makes sure that the essential community-oriented health services are available in the community. Which of the following core public health functions is being implemented?
a. ) Policy development
b. ) Assessment
c. ) Assurance
d. ) Scientifi knowledge-based care
c.) Assurance
Assurance focuses on the responsibility of public health agencies to ensure certain activities have been appropriately carried out to meet public health goals and plans. Policy development seeks to build constituencies that can help bring about change in public policy. Assessment includes activities that involve collecting, analyzing, and disseminating information on both the health status and the health-related aspects of a community or a specific population. Public health is based on scientific knowledge, but is not a core function.
A nurse is working in the community with an aggregate/population. Who is the nurse most likely to interact with?
a. ) Students in a county school system
b. ) Christians around the world
c. ) A patient in the intensive care unit at the local hospital
d. ) People who drink coffee
a.) Students in a county school system
A population or aggregate is a collection of individuals who have one or more personal or environmental characteristics in common. Members of a community who can be defined in terms of geography or a special interest can be seen as constituting a population. The clients in the first option share a geographical and special circumstance (school) characteristic. Christians around the world are too large of a geographical space. A patient cannot be an aggregate/population as there is no one to interact with. People who drink coffee share a common interest, but may not share a common geographical location to interact.
The public health workforce should demonstrate competency in which of the following competency categories?
a. ) Financial planning and management
b. ) Workforce needs assessment
c. ) Acute care services
d. ) Curriculum development
a.) Financial planning and management
Workforce needs assessment, acute care services, and curriculum developments are not considered categories of core competencies of public health. Rather there are eight categories of competency, which include: (1) analytic/assessment, (2) policy development/program planning, (3) communication, (4) cultural competence, (5) community dimensions of practice, (6) basic public health sciences, (7) financial planning and management, and (8) leadership and systems thinking.
Population-focused practice focuses on defining the problems or needs of and implementing solutions for:
a. ) individuals.
b. ) aggregates.
c. ) communities.
d. ) geographical regions.
b.) aggregates.
Aggregates are a defined population made up of individuals in communities of a specific geographical region. Population-focused practice is implemented with defined populations or subpopulations. This is larger than the scope of individual care, but may not address the larger needs of the entire community or geographical region.
Which of the following are considered barriers to public health nursing? (Select all that apply.)
a. ) The mindset that the only role for the nurse is at the bedside
b. ) The structures within which nurses work and the process of role socialization within those structures
c. ) Few nurses receive graduate-level preparation in the concepts and strategies of the disciplines basic to public health
d. ) The steady decline in the number of job opportunities in the area
e. ) The inability to equally distribute the increasing funds
a.) The mindset that the only role for the nurse is at the bedside
b.) The structures within which nurses work and the process of role socialization within those structures
c.) Few nurses receive graduate-level preparation in the concepts and strategies of the disciplines basic to public health
Barriers exist in thinking that nurses only work in a hospital at the bedside, the process of role socialization in public health which can be a very autonomous profession, and that few nurses have had advanced education in public health. The number of job opportunities continues to increase, but the amount of funding allotted to public health continues to decline.
A community health nurse collects data about the number and proportion of persons aged 25 or older with less than a high school education. Which of the following best describes this data?
a. ) Sociodemographic characteristics
b. ) Health status data
c. ) Health risk factors
d. ) Health care resource consumption information
a.) Sociodemographic characteristics
The number and proportion of people is a sociodemographic characteristic. Health status includes birth and death rates. Health risk factors discuss proportions of populations who have particular health conditions or health risks. Health care resource consumption refers to spending on health care per capita.
A nurse performs activities to meet the primary goals of public health. Which of the following is the nurse most likely to complete?
a. ) Ensuring that a newly diagnosed 40-year-old hypertensive man takes his medication
b. ) Finding home care for a 70-year-old client recuperating from a hip replacement
c. ) Conducting an infant car seat safety check
d. ) Contacting a local hospice to admit a terminally ill 60-year-old woman
c.) Conducting an infant car seat safety check
The correct answer is concerned with the health of many people, while the other answers address individual interventions. According to the Core Functions Project, all levels of health care, including population-based public health care, must be funded or the goal of health of populations may never be reached.
A nurse is using a population focus when providing public health nursing care. Which of the following statements best describes the care that is being provided?
a. ) Priority is given to the highest risk population.
b. ) Direct caregiving is limited to preventive measures, such as administration of immunizations.
c. ) Attention is given to the population or community as a whole, regardless of whether they do or do not access the health care system.
d. ) Only populations outside institutional settings are considered.
c.) Attention is given to the population or community as a whole, regardless of whether they do or do not access the health care system.
PHNs are concerned with the health of the entire population. Priority is given to the entire population, not just the group at highest risk or those outside of institutional settings. Direct caregiving is not the focus of public health nursing care.
A nurse is implementing quality performance standards in a public health department. Which of the following best describes the importance of this action?
a. ) Quality performance standards are used to guide improvement in the public health system.
b. ) Quality performance standards rigidly control public health.
c. ) Quality performance standards guide administrators to monitor public health at the national level.
d. ) Quality performance standards can be used as hiring guidelines for nurses.
a.) Quality performance standards are used to guide improvement in the public health system.
These standards were developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 1998. They set the bar for the level of performance that is necessary to deliver essential public health services (PHSs). These standards were developed around the 10 essential PHSs. They focus on the overall public health system rather than on single organizations and describe an optimal level of performance. They are intended to support a process of quality improvement. State and local communities can assess their performance using certain available tools. They are not meant to control public health or be used for hiring guidelines.
A public health staff nurse has a clear understanding of population-focused practice. Which of the following characteristics would the nurse most likely display?
a. ) Volunteering for a local community action coalition
b. ) Able to perform interventions with individuals in the community
c. ) Able to improve the effectiveness of care provided
d. ) Considered a PHN specialist
c.) Able to improve the effectiveness of care provided
Public health staff nurses who have a clear understanding of population-focused care improve their effectiveness and efficiency of practice; have professional satisfaction by seeing how individual care contributes to health at the population level; and appreciate the practice of others who are population-focused specialists. PHN specialists are prepared at the master’s level and function in an administrative role.
Public health nursing is a specialty because:
a. ) it has a distinct focus and scope of practice.
b. ) it must be done by a registered nurse with a master’s degree.
c. ) it is focused on disadvantaged citizens.
d. ) it performs interventions at the acute care level.
a.) it has a distinct focus and scope of practice.
Public health nursing has a distinct focus and requires a special knowledge base. The other answers are not characteristics of a specialty.
