Analyze epidemiological, biostatistical, environmental, and other appropriate scientific data related to individual, aggregate, and population health.
Adapted from Joint Committee on Standards for Educational Evaluation. Program evaluation standards: how to assess evaluations of educational programs. 2nd ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 1994.
The Role of the DNP Prepared Nurse
The nurse in advanced practice can assess priorities within the population and can mediate with health promotion interventions to address the problem at the population and individual levels. Nurses at every level of preparation should have some knowledge of health promotion and disease prevention, as this is part of most nursing curricula in all types of programs. However, the depth of edification and the degree of application of the concepts increase with advanced degrees. The focus of populations is part of the AACN 2008 baccalaureate essentials. The AACN (2006) lists the seventh essential of DNP education as “clinical prevention and population health for improving the nation’s health” (p. 15). According to the AACN, the graduate of a DNP educational program meets this essential by fulfilling the following objectives:
- Analyze epidemiological, biostatistical, environmental, and other appropriate scientific data related to individual, aggregate, and population health.
- Synthesize concepts, including psychosocial dimensions and cultural diversity, related to clinical prevention and population health in developing, implementing, and evaluating interventions to address health promotion/disease prevention efforts, improve health status, access patterns, and/or address gaps in care of individuals, aggregates, or populations.
- Evaluate care delivery models and/or strategies using concepts related to community, environmental, and occupational health, and cultural and socioeconomic dimensions of health (AACN, 2006, p. 16).
The development of interventional programs that can result in irrefutable evaluation data is in its infancy. According to Sotto (2014), despite the importance of consistent health measurement and evaluation based on research, these areas remain poorly developed and uncoordinated. Disparities in healthcare spending will remain disparate until evidence can support costly, complex public health initiatives.