Applying Epidemiology to Program Design for Chronic Disease

As you know, promoting positive social change is a part of the Walden mission. To be an effective agent for social change, nurses must be able to logically and critically analyze population health issues using epidemiologic concepts, and then translate this knowledge into evidence-based practice to improve healthcare outcomes. This exercise will afford you such an experience at the population level. This is an exciting time to be working in the field of population health with all the new, dynamic, and innovative technologies and strategies to help patients and populations become more knowledgeable about their health.

This week’s Learning Resources present numerous health problems that result in a need for ongoing care. Your Assignment is to select a chronic disease of professional importance to you, and then design an intervention program to improve the health of populations affected by it.

Reference:

Nash, D. B., Skoufalos, A., Fabius, R. J., & Oglesby, W. H. (2021). Population health: Creating a culture of wellness (3rd ed). Jones & Bartlett Learning.

To prepare:

· Review the Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion (NCCDPHP) website from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

· Select one of the identified chronic diseases of national significance that impacts a population of interest to you.

· Consider a health outcome you would like to improve in this population related to the selected chronic disease.

· Develop a program proposal to improve this health outcome for this population using the assignment guidelines below. Select one of the program models in Curley, Chapter 7, to guide your planning.

· Review the SMART objective resources for a review of how to write objectives for your program.

· Use the Walden APA paper template, including appropriate APA 7 headings, to develop this Assignment.

The Assignment

In a 7- to 10-page proposal (not including title page and references), address the following:

· Briefly identify your selected chronic health issue and population.

· Describe the geographic region and important characteristics of this population.

· Describe the patterns of the disease in your selected population using the epidemiologic characteristics of person, place, and time.

· Identify one health outcome you would like to improve for the population.

· Briefly summarize current evidence that supports the importance of improving this health outcome.

· Explain what data you would need to collect, and how you would obtain and analyze it. You may choose to collect primary data or use secondary data. Justify your choice.

· Using the “SMART” method, write short- and long-term objectives for the program.

· Identify the stakeholders who should be involved in program planning.

· Identify which program planning model (see Curley, Chapter 7) you selected for your program. Justify your selection of model. Based on the model, explain how you would plan, implement, and evaluate the program.

· Explain any relevant cultural or ethical considerations related to your program design.

· Explain how you would fund the program.

· Describe strategies that would be appropriate for marketing the program.