Public Health Nursing Core Functions (2026) – 220 Questions on Community Assessment, Epidemiology & Disease Prevention

This document contains approximately 220 comprehensive exam-style questions with expert-verified answers covering Public Health Nursing Core Functions, Community Assessment, and Disease Prevention (2026). It thoroughly reviews the three core functions of public health—assessment, policy development, and assurance—and emphasizes the main goals of public health, including improving population health, enhancing patient experience, and reducing healthcare costs (pages 1–2). The content integrates essential competencies such as analytic and assessment skills, cultural competence and humility, leadership and financial planning, interprofessional collaboration, and advocacy for marginalized populations and health equity. The document provides extensive coverage of community assessment frameworks, including the Community as a Partner Model, Windshield Survey, asset-based assessment, GIS use in population mapping, and structured community diagnosis and program evaluation steps (pages 10–14). It also details levels of prevention (primary, secondary, tertiary), Healthy People 2030 objectives, social determinants of health (economic stability, education access, healthcare access, neighborhood safety, and social support), and epidemiological models such as the epidemiologic triad and web of causation (pages 4, 8, 20–22). Descriptive and analytic epidemiology are clearly differentiated, including cohort and case-control studies, incidence, prevalence, attack rate, and incidence density calculations. Historical foundations of public health nursing are reviewed, highlighting Lemuel Shattuck, Dorothea Dix, Clara Barton, Lillian Wald, Mary Breckinridge, and Florence Nightingale (pages 3–4). The document further covers infectious disease prevention and management, including Listeria (treated with ampicillin), Salmonella, E. coli O157, Hepatitis A vaccine schedule, Norovirus, Giardia (metronidazole), Campylobacter (azithromycin), vector-borne illnesses such as Lyme disease and plague, and STI management including Chlamydia, Gonorrhea, and Syphilis (pages 24–29). Additional high-yield topics include disaster preparedness, bioterrorism planning (ciprofloxacin for inhalation anthrax), hospice and palliative care, pain management (opioids, acetaminophen dosing limits), substance use disorder screening (AUDIT-C, CAGE), intimate partner violence prevention levels, and family assessment models (pages 12–20, 29–30). The structured question-and-answer format mirrors undergraduate and graduate public health nursing examinations and strengthens understanding of population-focused care, epidemiologic reasoning, prevention strategies, policy development, and evidence-based practice. This resource is particularly relevant for: Public Health Nursing students Community Health Nursing courses RN-to-BSN and BSN programs MSN and APRN public health tracks NCLEX-RN preparation (community and population health) Certification review in public/community health nursing Keywords: public health nursing core functions 2026 assessment policy development assurance community as a partner framework windshield survey community assessment primary secondary tertiary prevention Healthy People 2030 objectives social determinants of health five domains epidemiologic triad host agent environment incidence prevalence attack rate calculation cohort vs case control study web of causation epidemiology asset based community assessment bioterrorism primary secondary tertiary prevention Hepatitis A vaccine schedule Listeria ampicillin treatment Lyme disease doxycycline treatment chlamydia doxycycline azithromycin intimate partner violence prevention levels AUDIT C CAGE screening hospice palliative care pain management