Learning to Manage a "Flat World”: Advanced Public Health Nursing Education at the Edge

Traditional educational approaches and curriculum for advanced practice public health nursing (APPHN) are being challenged by the complexities of today's public health problems and the growing body of scientific knowledge framing public health issues. The recent Association of Community Health Nursing Educators' (ACHNE) position paper, Graduate Education for Advanced Practice Public Health Nursing, challenges nurse educators to apply innovative strategies in preparing public health nursing professionals in the 21st century, and to expand curriculum paradigms to promote public health nursing's ecological approach to solving problems. To advance public health as a specialty in nursing, ACHNE endorsed the Doctorate of Nursing Practice as a terminal degree for advanced nursing practice. However, the preparation and marketability of doctorally prepared APPHNs may be influenced by several factors and moving the terminal practice degree to the doctoral level will be an evolutionary process that might follow multiple pathways and challenges. The presentation will focus on this evolutionary process and the approaches for educational programs in preparing the APPHN at the doctoral level. Implementation models include those for master's and doctoral degree granting institutions, as well as options for a certificate curriculum contributing to the APPHN terminal degree. Collaborative educational models, such as ones with schools of public health and other colleges of nursing, provide opportunities to develop new programs, help students to attain doctoral education, and meet a PHN leadership workforce need regardless of geographic boundaries and distribution.