This course is intended to introduce nursing students to the concept of the community as a
health system, and to the roles and responsibilities of nurses in population-based services.
Nurses in primary care or management roles in community nursing are responsible for assessment,
planning, intervention, education, and evaluation of implementations intended for prevention of
disease or health risk, health promotion, or restorative health. The client may be an individual,
a family system, or a neighborhood. Nurses in public health roles may work with health systems
or agencies involved with policy or broad interventions, and in those cases the client may be
cities, states, or nations.
This course is intended for undergraduate nursing students who wish to prepare for primary care
roles in community service settings, or with agencies whose mission is health promotion and
disease prevention with regard to communities or target populations.
Professional responsibilities, plans of care and nursing systems are introduced in relation to
topics of environmental health, epidemiology and disease risk as well as assessment and
intervention with special populations.
Community health nursing considerations for vulnerable populations, as well as assessment and
care in special circumstances such as rural health and disaster interventions, are discussed.
Cultural competence, home care, family and community assessment, and issues of mental health
and drug abuse are also explored.
Although there is some discussion of American health care systems, this class will be of value
for nurses of any nation or community setting.
This course is intended introduce the student to the dynamics and issues that impact health of
environments, communities and populations. To achieve this end, some interaction with the
student's own environment will be necessary. Research and data-gathering such as interviews,
visualassessment of environments and groups, and identification of nursing roles may be
required.
Course assignments are designed such that they are individually tailored within an area of focus
as selected by the student, thus supporting the specific health care or role interest of each
student. The first half of this course provides background regarding community health concepts
and applications, while the second half of the course focuses on development of nursing
assessment and intervention plans in selected scenarios, settings.
This course has weekly homework assignments or activities, which will draw upon numerous and
varied resources. These activities and assignments include information from the textbook and
resources available at the publisher's web site (see textbook information), selection of
community settings and scenarios, and professional interests. There are several occasions
throughout the course that information drawn from the student's own community will be integrated
into the learning opportunities.
There is a midterm due in week #4, consisting of an assignment designed to integrate
course material. This is posted in the course assignment area.
There is a final due in week #8, consisting of care plans regarding selected
assessments and scenarios.
Requirements and specific details for these papers and weekly homework are given in the
weekly assignment section of this syllabus, and may not be available for public view without an
enrollment password issued by Canyon College.
Stanhope, M., and Lancaster, J.(2000). Community and Public Health Nursing. (5th ed.).
New York: Mosby. ISBN #: 032300749X
There is a companion web site for this textbook provided by the publisher:
WebLinks
This web site contains interesting resource material and updated information that supplements
the course topics and assists the student with necessary research for this class.
A passcode is required for this web site.
The passcode is on the inside cover of the textbook.
Upon successful completion of Week 1 assignments, the student should be able to:
Describe community health nursing, population-focused practice and nursing contributions in
public health
Upon successful completion of Week 2 assignments, the student should be able to:
Describe the components and importance of cultural impacts on care and the role of
culturally sensitive care
Identify the components of a cultural assessment in a community setting
Discuss issues of international importance regarding community health
Describe professional responsibilities regarding ethics and patient rights
Upon successful completion of Week 3 assignments, the student should be able to:
Identify epidemiologic methods used to describe health and disease phenomena
Become acquainted with nursing languages and nursing models as applied to community health
nursing
Upon successful completion of Week 4 assignments, the student should be able to:
Integrate environmental, cultural, epidemiologic and ethical components of community health
nursing regarding assessments and plans of care.
Upon successful completion of Week 5 assignments, the student should be able to:
Apply community health nursing fundamentals in special conditions, such as rural environments
and in natural or man-made disasters
Apply community health nursing fundamentals to special populations, such as those in
conditions of poverty and homelessness, violence and abuse, or lifestyle challenges such as teen
pregnancy
Upon successful completion of Week 6 assignments, the student should be able to:
Apply community health nursing fundamentals to age or interest related populations, such as
families, elders, or the physically challenged
Upon successful completion of Week 7 assignments, the student should be able to:
Describe nursing roles in one of more community health settings
Upon successful completion of Week 8 assignments, the student should be able to:
Complete an assessment and begin a plan using a nursing model for community health
intervention with a selected population and a selected environment.
Since this course is offered over the Internet, which allows students to participate at "any
time, any where," it is important to plan your time carefully. Students are expected to pace
themselves to access assignments, prepare their work and necessary research, and submit
assignments to the instructor by the established due dates. Students are expected to make use
of local resources as well as required readings.
Course Week and Due Dates.
Generally, Monday is the first of the course week, and Sunday is the last day of the course week.
Assignments scheduled for completion during a class week should be sent to the instructor via
e-mail or fax by end of the day Sunday, determined by your own time zone. If a student is sending
assignments through the postal service, please make prior arrangements with instructor, as there
is no postal delivery on Sunday. Given that this is a course about communities and environments,
and that some outside contact and independent research is necessary to fulfill assignments, some
flexibility regarding due dates may be granted by mutual agreement between student and
instructor.
Submitting Assignments - Instructions.
Students may submit work in MSWord (any version) or WordPerfect (any version) or HTML and send
as an e-mail note or file attachment. If you use another word processing program (such as Works),
please save as an .rtf file.
Formats for files received other than those specified here that your instructor cannot open
using MSWord or a Word converter program for PC or Macintosh will be returned to you for
reprocessing, and will be considered late. Any questions on formatting of your file attachment
documents, please Email your instructor with any
questions now and we can find a format that will work for your particular needs. Thanks in
advance on this matter.
Please include name, reply address, title of assignment, title of course, and date submitted on
the document itself, in addition to the e-mail text. Please indicate "NR350" in the subject line
of your e-mail.
Late Assignment Penalties.
Weekly assignments must be received by the instructor not later than Sunday midnight (your time
zone) of the week assigned. Students who anticipate that their schedule may cause assignments to
be out of compliance are advised to contact instructor at least one week in advance, as an
extension may be permitted with prior mutual agreement. Instructor discretion regarding point
penalties for any late work will be considered final.
Absentee Policy.
While this course is designed to be completed through independent study, "attendance" is recorded
through assignment submissions in a timely manner to the instructor's e-mail address (or via
post or fax). However, please note that any student who has not participated (completed
assignments) for 14 consecutive days without prior discussion with the instructor regarding such
absence shall be recommended for administrative withdrawal. The school shall make recommendations
to the instructor as to what action will be taken.
Academic Honesty.
Canyon College policies are in effect. All work must be your own. Presenting as one's own the
words, ideas, or expression of another in any form is cheating through plagiarism, and will not
be tolerated. Instructor retains the right to engage academic search services for Internet
Plaigiarism at any time on any student papers submitted for credit in this course.
Assignments will be graded based on completeness, correctness and timeliness of submissions.
There is a total of 100 points possible.
Homework.
Weekly assignments may have more than one component, and the point value for each component is
worth points as shown on the assignment detail.
Midterm and Final Weeks.
The Midterm grade is determined by aggregate point performance of work submitted for assignments
designated in weeks 1-4 and the midterm exam. The Final point allocation is determined through
aggregate points submitted for all weeks of the course.
Final Letter Grade.
Letter grades will be assigned at the conclusion of the eight weeks based on cumulative points
achieved over the entirety of the eight week course. The grading scale based on 100 possible
points is as follows:
