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Chapter 01: Public Health Nursing and Population Health
Stanhope: Foundations for Population Health in Community/Public Health Nursing
MULTIPLE CHOICE
1. Which statement best describes community-based nursing?
a. A practice in which care is provided for individuals and families.
b. Providing care with a focus on the group’s needs.
c. Giving care with a focus on the aggregate’s needs.
d. A value system in which all clients receive optimal care.
ANS: A
By definition, community-based nursing is a setting-specific practice in which care is provided for “sic
where they live, work, and attend school. The emphasis is on acute and chronic care and the provision
coordinated, and continuous care. These nurses may be generalists or specialists in maternal-infant, ped
mental health nursing. Community-based nursing emphasizes acute and chronic care to individuals and
focusing on groups, aggregates, or systems.
2. Which statement best describes the goal of community-oriented nursing?
a. Providing care to individuals and families
b. Providing care to manage acute or chronic conditions
c. Giving direct care to ill individuals within their family setting
d. To preserve, protect, promote, or maintain health and prevent disease
ANS: D
By definition, community-oriented nursing has the goal of preserving, protecting, or maintaining health
promote the quality of life. All nurses may focus on individuals and families, give direct care to ill pers
setting, and help manage acute or chronic conditions. These definitions are not specific to community-
3. Which of the following is the primary focus of public health nursing?
a. Families and groups
b. Illness-oriented care
c. Individuals within the family unit
d. Health care of communities and populations
ANS: D
In public health nursing, the primary focus is on the health care of communities and populations rather
and families. The goal is to prevent disease and preserve, promote, restore, and protect health for the co
within it. Community-based nurses deal primarily with illness-oriented care of individuals and families
aim is to manage acute and chronic health conditions in the community, and the focus of practice is on
family-centered illness care.
4. Which of the following is responsible for the dramatic increase in life expectancy during the 20th centu
a. Technology increases in the field of medical laboratory research
b. Advances in surgical techniques and procedures
c. Sanitation and other population-based prevention programs
d. Use of antibiotics to fight infections
ANS: C
There has to be indisputable evidence collected over time that public health policies and programs wer
increasing the average life span from 47 in 1900 to 78.6 years in 2017, an increase of approximately 6
through improvements in (1) sanitation, (2) clean water supplies, (3) making workplaces safer, (4) imp
(5) immunizing children, and (6) improving nutrition, hygiene, and housing. Although people are excit
discovered that cures a disease or when a new way to transplant organs is perfected, it is important to
gains in the health of populations that have come largely from public health accomplishments.
5. A nurse is developing a plan to decrease the number of premature deaths in the community. Which of t
would most likely be implemented by the nurse?
a. Provide free health care to all citizens
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6. What is the basic assumption stated by Healthy People 2010 as it relates to public health efforts?
a. Health disparities among any groups are morally and legally wrong.
b. Health care is the most important priority in government planning and funding.
c. The health of individuals cannot be separated from the health of the community.
d. The government is responsible for lengthening the life span of Americans.
ANS: C
The major premise of Healthy People 2010 was that the health of the individual cannot be entirely
the larger community. Public health practice focuses on the community as a whole, and the effect of th
(resources) on the health of individuals, families, and groups. The goal is to prevent disease and disabil
the health of the community as a whole. Public health can be described as what society collectively doe
exist in which people can be healthy. The basic assumptions of public health do not judge the morality
focus is on prevention of illness not on spending more on illness care. Additionally, individual respons
choices is the directive for lengthening life span not the role of the government.
7. Which of the following actions would most likely be performed by a public health nurse?
a. Asking community leaders what interventions should be chosen
b. Assessing the community and deciding on appropriate interventions
c. Using data from the main health care institutions in the community to determine
needed health services
d. Working with community groups to create policies to improve the environment
ANS: D
Although the public health nurse might engage in any of the tasks listed, he or she works primarily wit
to carry out core public health functions, including assessment of the population as a whole and engagi
improving the environment. The interventions of asking community leaders which interventions should
community and deciding on appropriate interventions, and using data from health care institutions do n
engagement of the community when making decisions about what the community actually wants and n
8. Which public health nurse most clearly fulfills the responsibilities of this role?
a. The nurse who met with several groups to discuss community recreation issues
b. The nurse who spent the day attending meetings of various health agencies
c. The nurse who talked to several people about their particular health concerns
d. The nurse who watched the city council meeting on local cable television
ANS: B
Any of these descriptions might represent a nurse communicating, cooperating, or collaborating with c
groups about health concerns. A major challenge for the future is the need for public health nursing spe
aggressive in working collaboratively with various groups in the community as well as professional co
settings to deal with barriers to health. However, the nurse who spent the day attending meetings of var
most representative, because in public health, concerns are addressed from a broader perspective. In pu
of the community should be addressed. Concerns are broader than recreation, individual concerns are n
priorities, and watching television (a one-way form of communication) is less effective than interacting
9. Which of the following best defines aggregate?
a. A large group of persons
b. A collection of individuals and families
c. A collection of people who share one or more characteristics
d. Another name for demographic group
ANS: C
An aggregate is defined a collection of people who share one or more personal or environmental charac
community can be defined in terms of either geography (e.g., a county, a group of counties, or a state)
children attending a particular school). These members make up a population. The term population m
interchangeably with the term aggregate. A large group of persons, a collection of individuals and f
for demographic group are not accurate definitions of the term aggregate.
10. Which question asked by a novice nurse would be the most reflective of an understanding of the role o
a. “Which groups are at the greatest risk for problems?”
b. “Which patients should I see first as I begin my day?”
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12. When talking to a women’s group at the senior citizens’ center, the nurse reminded them that the only
to afford to provide transportation services for them would be for them to continue to write letters to
representatives requesting funding for such a service. What was the nurse trying to accomplish through
a. Ensure that the women did not expect the nurse to solve their problem.
b. Demonstrate that the nurse understood the women’s concerns and needs.
c. Express empathy, support, and concern.
d. Help the women engage in political action.
ANS: D
Public health nurses engage themselves and others in policy development and encourage and assist per
needs to those with the power to take action. The nurse is demonstrating the role of advocate through th
merely understanding the women’s concern, and instead mobilizes them to take action. This action doe
showing empathy rather the nurse is empowering these women.
13. The public health nurse has a clear vision of what needs to be done and where to begin to improve the
Why would the nurse spend time meeting with community groups to discuss the most important task to
a. To increase the group’s self-esteem
b. To maintain communication links with the groups
c. To make the groups feel good about their contribution
d. To work with the groups, not for the groups
ANS: D
Historically, health care providers have been accused of providing care for or to people without actual
the decisions. Public health nursing is a “with the people”—not a “to the people” or “for the people”—
is an imperative to work with members of the community to carry out core public health functions. The
community groups is not to increase their self-esteem or make them feel good about their contribution,
act for themselves to solve the problems they are facing. The first task of working with the group shoul
maintaining communication links.
14. The nurse often has to make resource allocation decisions. Which of the following best describes the cr
in such cases?
a. The specific moral or ethical principle related to the situation
b. The cheapest, most economical approach
c. The most rational probable outcome
d. The needs of the aggregate rather than a few individuals
ANS: D
The dominant needs of the population outweigh the expressed needs of one or a few people. All of th
components of a decision that the nurse might consider in determining the needs of the aggregate.
15. Which of the following actions best represents public health nursing?
a. Assessing the effectiveness of the high school health clinic
b. Caring for clients in their home following their outpatient surgeries
c. Providing care to children and their families at the school clinic
d. Administering follow-up care for pediatric clients at an outpatient clinic
ANS: A
A public health or population-focused approach would look at the entire group of children being served
available services are effective in achieving the goal of improving the health of the school population
families focuses on individuals and families and not on the entire population. Public health focuses on
16. Two nurses plan to walk under a huge downtown bridge where various homeless persons live. Why wo
unsafe area?
a. To assess the needs of the homeless who live there
b. To demonstrate their courage and commitment
c. To distribute some of their own surplus clothes to those who can use them
d. To share with various churches and other charities what is needed
ANS: A
In most nursing practices, the client seeks out and requests assistance. In public health nursing, the nu
