Graduate Education in Public Health Nursing: Evaluation and Recommendations

Abstract

A survey was conducted of graduates of ten public health nursing master's degree programs that support the aggregate approach to public health nursing. Topics included activities related to the aggregate focus, demographic and employment characteristics, job satisfaction, and reasons for selecting positions. There was a high level of employment among the respondents, and they tended to be satisfied with their jobs. They worked in diverse settings and held positions ranging from staff nurse to top administrator. Although the graduates performed aggregate focus activities in any setting, there were differences in level of performance among persons in the different types of positions. Based on analysis of the data, recommendations are made in areas of graduate programs, graduates, and employers and communities.One of the recent overriding concerns in community health nursing has been the need to reconfirm with others what business we are really in. Over the years, the concept of community health nursing has been reevaluated several times, shifting from a focus on public health principles in the 1950s and

Core Curriculum for Master's‐Level Community Health Nursing Education: A Comparison of the Views of Leaders in Service and Education

“…Our findings also emphasize the need for collaboration between service and education in planning educational programs for community health nursing. Such collaboration has been advocated in other reports such as the Institute of Medicine (1988) study of the status of public health and the Division of Nursing study of baccalaureate education in public health (Deiman et al, 1988;Jones et al, 1987), and by other leaders in community health nursing (e.g.. Ray & Flynn, 1984;White et al, 1980). Apparently there still is a need to develop and improve such collaborative relationships.…”