Retooling the skill set of public health nurses: An educational intervention

Public Health Nursing (PHN) is experiencing a critical shortage both in the number of nurses and their understanding of population health. It is essential that our country's infrastructure develop an adequate supply of well-prepared nurses in order to ensure an effective public health system. Methods to better prepare nurses for population health practice and to retain nurses in public health must be developed. Continuing education (CE) programs can provide practical knowledge of population based health care and support career advancement, facilitating registered nurse (RN) retention. A HRSA-funded project using distance educational technology is designed to improve access to quality population-based educational programs, and to refine nurses' abilities to be successful in the public health arena. Population-based CE courses are offered through real time web casts that are also digitally captured and available on a delayed basis at the nurses' worksites. RN participants who attend all sessions have an option to receive 3 credits for the RN-BSN degree population health course at a university. Planning the courses involved an advisory team of faculty, nurses and PH administrators, with topic selection and course content adapted to their requests. The topics for the four courses included community assessment and grant writing, finance and policy, community engagement methods, and applied epidemiology. Formative and summative evaluation methods measure satisfaction, knowledge gained and cultural competency development through the four sessions.