Community/Public Health/Home Care Nursing Program
Program
Community Health Nursing Master's
Sub-Plan
Community/Public Health/Home Care Nursing
Program Focus
Education
The Community/Public Health/Home Care Nursing Program provides broad advanced preparation for community-oriented, population-focused, nursing practice. The curriculum is designed to prepare nurses to plan, implement, and evaluate health programs and services and to help shape and manage health care systems.
Practice
Graduates of this program are employed in managed care organizations, community-based voluntary organizations, hospices, and neighborhood health centers.
See the application requirements for this program.
“The Michigan Difference” in Community/Public Health/Home Care Nursing
A History of Pioneering Leadership and Innovation
The University of Michigan School of Nursing has prepared community health nursing leaders for over three decades and has a tradition of leading the way in this specialty area. For example, the program was the first population-focused advanced practice nursing program in the state and the home health care focus was the first federally funded concentration in the country. Currently, the program is one of the top ranked Community Health Nursing Programs by U.S. News and World Report.
World-Class Faculty Leaders in Education, Research, and Practice
As part of their preparation, students in the Community/Public Health/Home Care program work with distinguished faculty members to advance nursing practice through research. Through this collaboration, students are involved in addressing health behaviors issues among diverse populations. Just some examples of current faculty research include initiatives targeting homeless individuals as well as people engaging in high risk health behaviors (e.g. smoking, drinking, unsafe sex practices, drug abuse) and investigating nurse administered web based health behavior interventions. Students also have the opportunity to exchange ideas with other health care professionals through clinical practice and interdisciplinary coursework in the School of Public Health and other departments within the university.
Diverse Practice Settings and Exposure to the Full Spectrum of Care
Students in the Community/Public Health/Home Care program work closely with community health and social services agencies which address multiple, complex population and community focused needs. All specialty community/public health/home care courses provide an opportunity for students to be exposed to highly qualified preceptors in advanced practice roles.
Students have access to a wide range of practice settings which expose them to diverse clinical opportunities and the full spectrum of care. Students participate in selecting field practice sites in their home areas from a variety of settings – from local and state health departments, to not-for-profit health organizations with a specialty focus and home care and hospice agencies. The diversity of settings provide students with the opportunity to interact with a wide variety of vulnerable populations and health care professionals from different discipline.
Significant International Outreach and Global Opportunities
Advanced practice in community and public health nursing requires a global health perspective. We are fortunate that the School of Nursing is a designated World Health Organization Collaborating Center for Research and Clinical Training in Health Promotion Nursing. As such, community, public health and home care nursing students have had the opportunity to work with the School of Nursing faculty in clinical settings in Africa (Zimbabwe, Liberia, Ghana), Central America (Honduras), Australia and Thailand.
Innovative, Groundbreaking Research Specific to Health Promotion and Risk Reduction
Faculty in the Division of Health Promotion and Risk Reduction Programs (HPRR) in the School of Nursing are actively involved in a wide range of health promotion and risk reduction research activity. For instance, Dr. Sonia Duffy is examining strategies to facilitate smoking cessation in Veterans and adult workers, Dr. Kristy Martyn and Dr. Cindy Darling-Fisher are focusing on developing interventions to address high risk sexual behaviors among adolescents, and Dr. Annie Kao is examining interventions for helping families to address deviant adolescent behavior. These are just some of the examples of U-M School of Nursing faculty engaged in groundbreaking research. For a complete listing, persuse the faculty profiles.
Scope
The emphasis in community/public health nursing is on using population-based, community oriented interventions to build healthy communities. With the community becoming the focal point for health care, community health nurses are in a unique position to provide leadership in evolving managed care and integrated health systems that address the needs of populations across the lifespan. Community health nurses place emphasis on providing health promotion, health protection and disease prevention interventions. These interventions are designed to prevent or address the adverse determinants of health and to build healthy communities. Community health nurses need health policy, program planning and evaluation, health resources management, and research skills to effectively partner with communities. They also need an understanding of nursing theory and public health sciences. The community/public health/home care nursing track addresses these concepts.
The American Nurses Association’s scope and standards of practice for public health nursing guide the development of our curriculum. For more information about these standards see American Nurses Association (2007), Public health nursing: Scope and standards of practice, Silver Springs, MD: Nursesbooks.org or visit the American Nurses Association website.
Specialty Appeal
Nurses in the community/public health/home health care field:
- Feel rewarded and satisfied by their career as they protect and improve the health and wellness of people, especially the most vulnerable, such as children and the elderly
- Influence health policy, improve programs, and address the health of the community as a whole rather than the individual
- Look forward to increasing career opportunities as the community/public health/home health care field is expected to grow as health care continues to evolve and the numbers of older persons with functional disabilities increases
- Take the lead by partnering with other professions, organizations and stakeholder groups to advance community health and environmental goals
- Live balanced lives as community and public health careers are “family friendly”
Curriculum
Listed below is the basic plan of study and required courses for the Community/Public Health/Home Care Nursing program. The School of Nursing is committed to working with students to help them balance the demands of graduate education with their other personal and professional commitments. As such, this 36-40 hour program plan is purposefully flexible through a weekend format. Full-time and part-time study plans can be individually designed.
Course Number | Course Name | Course Credits |
|---|---|---|
Core Courses | ||
The Theoretical Base for Advanced Nursing Practice | 3 | |
Strategy for Nursing and Health Care | 3 | |
Utilization of Nursing Research in Advanced Practice* | 3 | |
Specialty Courses | ||
Health Promotion and Risk Reduction Across the Lifespan | 3 | |
Community Health Nursing and Population Assessment | 4 | |
Current and Emerging Issues in Advanced Community Health Practice | 4 | |
Intervention with Aggregates and Communities | 4-6 | |
Managing Community Based Systems | 4-6 | |
Required Cognates | ||
BIOS503 | Biostatistics | 4 |
EPID503 | Strategies and Uses of Epidemiology | 3 |
Total Credits = 35-39 | ||
*An approved statistics course and an undergraduate research course must be taken and the STATS and METHODS Modules completed before registering for N536.
