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Epidemiology in Community Health Nursing Education: Fit or Misfit?
Author(s) -
Kornblatt Elayne S.,
Goeppinger Jean,
Jagger Janine
Publication year - 1985
Publication title -
public health nursing
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.471
H-Index - 55
eISSN - 1525-1446
pISSN - 0737-1209
DOI - 10.1111/j.1525-1446.1985.tb00684.x
Subject(s) - epidemiology , public health , public health nursing , community health , medicine , accreditation , nursing , family medicine , gerontology , medical education
Epidemiology underlies public health theory and practice. Sixty NLN‐accredited master's degree programs in community and public health nursing were surveyed with respect to epidemiology course content, instructor preparation, and administrative responsibility. Of 55 programs responding, two‐thirds offered an epidemiology course. Fewer, about half, required their students to take such a course. Content areas most frequently included were morbidity/mortality and incidence/prevalence; the areas included least often were screening and epidemics. Instructors typically had a PhD in epidemiology. Most required courses were located in schools of nursing. Requirements varied by region, length of program, size of program, and presence of school of public health; these differences, however, were not statistically significant. As epidemiology is basic to public health, one can assume that a substantial percentage of graduates may be limited in their ability to practice as community health nursing educators or service providers.