Master of Science in Nursing Public & Population Health Online

​Upon completion of NU 952 the student will be able to:

• Demonstrate effective communication with individuals, support systems, community resources, and interdisciplinary health care members.
• Apply the core competencies pertinent to community/public health nursing which are community and population focused.
• Apply the mission, vision and goals of Health People 2020 in achieving health equity, eliminating disparity and improving the health of all groups.
• Define the basic concepts of evidence-based decision-making.
• Demonstrate how to locate information on evidence-based approaches in the literature.
• Describe the importance of interdisciplinary approaches to public health.
• Describe several applications within public health practice that are based on evidence.
• Define barriers to evidence-based decision-making in public health settings.
• Discuss emerging public health issues.
• Analyze theories and research as they apply to population health.

​Upon completion of this course, students will be able to:

• Identify the various influencers of health policy and politics including stakeholders, media, history, ethics and political processes.
• Discuss nursing considerations when examining policy at various levels including local, state, federal and global.
• Compare and identify differences between U.S. Health Care and existing Global Health Care Policies.
• Critique existing health policy and provide informed recommendations.
• Apply policy concepts to explore the nurses’ various roles in health care policy development.
• Design a health policy through assessment, analysis and development that can impact patients, populations or health care systems, demonstrating nursing knowledge and leadership.

​Upon completion of this course, students will be able to:

• Illustrate the role of research in development of nursing knowledge and practice
• Explain the role of evidence-based practice in determining best clinical practice
• Develop skills necessary to perform a literature review of clinical topic and related research
• Critique nursing research and assess the application to professional nursing practice
• Describe aspects of a research critique
• Discuss ethical and legal considerations in health care research
• Access and apply relevant information needed to answer questions in nursing practice using appropriate scholarly databases available through technology.
• Utilize the research process to address an identified question in nursing.
• Interpret results of quantitative and qualitative data analysis
• Critically examine research using established criteria.
• Analyze the implications of research studies for evidence-based practice
• Evaluate the application of ethical principles to nursing research

​By the end of the semester, students successfully completing this course will be able to:

• Define population health and its applications in both the clinical and community settings.
• Calculate commonly used epidemiological measures for morbidity, mortality, and trends in birth and natality.
• Interpret commonly used epidemiological measures for morbidity, mortality, and trends in birth and natality.
• Account for how descriptive variables (person, place, and time characteristics) influence variation in health status.
• Relate prevention of disease outbreaks to modes of transmission and tracking.
• Calculate measures of association for randomized controlled cohort, case-control (matched and unmatched), cross-sectional studies, and nested designs including relative risk, odds ratio, estimated odds, prevalence ratios, and odds.
• Interpret measures of association for randomized controlled cohort, case-control (matched and unmatched), cross-sectional studies, and nested designs including relative risk, odds ratio, estimated odds, prevalence ratios, and odds
• Design contingency tables for cohort, case-control (matched and unmatched), and cross-sectional designs.
• Rank study designs with respect to their validity of causal inferences.
• Identify the study designs strengths, limitations, and unique features.

Upon completion of NU 956 the student will be able to:

• Describe how health informatics systems and tools can contribute to improved population health activities
• Compare and contrast the various fields within informatics (e.g., biomedical informatics, public health informatics, consumer informatics
• Identify and describe strengths and weaknesses in system implementations
• Identify challenges using population health sources, including issues related to big data, interoperability and population segmentation.
• Document use cases, business requirements, and test plans for a technology implementation and ongoing system maintenance and upgrades
• Understand challenges and implications of designing systems while considering secondary use of the data captured (e.g., using Electronic Health Record (EHR) data for public health surveillance or research activities)
• Describe data and interoperability standards used in public health information systems
• Strategically think about how an informatics / technology platform can be used to support public health activities
• Identify issues around Privacy, Confidentiality, Security and Ethics

​Upon successful completion of this course, the student will:

• Their potential leadership style and how to use this understanding of themselves in choosing what leadership roles will be a good fit for them.
• How to identify their strengths and the strengths in others that may report to them in future leadership role. This understanding will shape how they assign tasks to be successful in future projects.
• How to assess best practice guidance through research to apply to the clinical area
• How to build a presentation/case to influence stakeholders and funders regarding future decisions in healthcare delivery.
• Where to find allies and networking regarding best practices in public health to advance knowledge and new trends in public health.

Upon completion of NU 958 the student will be able to:

• Apply the nursing process in the practice of global health
• Identify and describe major global health and environmental issues and concerns in International Country
• Describe multiple dimensions of global/cultural systems
• Synthesize different types of data and sources of information to assess global environmental/cultural issues/health disparities
• Assess global impacts of planned actions when addressing global health and global environmental issues
• Formulate possible solutions/interventions when addressing global health and environmental issues
• Analyze and evaluate global or intercultural health issues
• Explain how cultural beliefs influence behaviors and practices at the individual, organizational, or societal levels on environmental and population health
• Describe how government structure, culture, and social conditions such as poverty, literacy, and migration impact health and access to health care.
• Develop a clearly defined research question related to global health international country

​At the completion of this course, the student will have met the following course objectives as evidenced through the assessment method(s):

• Develop an understanding of the emerging science of genetics and genomics in public and population health.
• Identify the impact of conditions and environmental forces from natural and acquired genetic and genomics on health.
• Analyze screening for genetic risk factors and environmental impacts on the genome and describe both local, regional and worldwide impact.

​Upon completion of NU 962 the student will be able to:

• Analyze public health program planning and development, as well as needs and asset assessment.
• Evaluate methods required to develop a strategic plan.
• Analyze the administration and coordination of public population health program interventions and activities.
• Describe the variety of methods used to facilitate public health research in practice settings.

​Upon completion of NU 963 the student will be able to:

• Utilize complex data to identify population health assets, needs, and risks.
• Interpret surveillance data related to the plan and population health status.
• Identify current theoretical issues relevant to the practice of public/population health nursing at the advanced level, by integrating theory, evidence, clinical judgment, research, and interpersonal perspectives using translational processes to improve practice and associated health outcomes for patient aggregates.
• Apply epidemiologic methods of analysis to public/population health problems.
• Synthesize broad, environmental, global, and social determinants of health; principles of genetics and genomics; and epidemiologic data to design and deliver evidence-based, culturally relevant clinical prevention interventions and strategies.

Upon completion of NU 964 the student will be able to:

• Identify a need and develop an idea from programmatic inception through resource development and implementation.
• Complete a focused literature review in order to support hypotheses and aims of grant proposal.
• Produce a succinct assessment of need, develop a consistent and workable program plan, write clearly defined goals and objectives, and identify appropriate monitoring and evaluation measures.
• Prepare a logic model, to include resources and raw materials in the form of inputs, services and activities in the form of outputs, measurable outputs and impact to address the benefit to community/society.
• Prepare a complete program budget in a grant format.
• Demonstrates an understanding of the different types of funding sources and identifies where to find this information.
• Integrate information from program development, literature review, logic model, budget and funding sources to produce a grant, crafted to provide evidence of an appropriate fit with the funding agency and the fitness of the grant team to fulfill the contract.