Identifying a Health Care-Related Problem and a Target Population

Take a few minutes to think about the most pressing health-promotion and disease-prevention issues, such as those identified in “Healthy People 2020” and the Institute of Medicine’s Future of Nursing. Which one most calls your attention? Maternal, infant, and child health? Health communication and health information technology? Immunization and infectious diseases?This course provides a venue for addressing issues such as one of these through the design of a program and associated evaluation. In order to design an effective program though, it is critical to narrow the focus from one of these larger issues to a specific problem and a target population.This Discussion provides a forum through which you and your colleagues may support each other in first selecting a health-promotion and disease-prevention issue of national significance, and then identifying a problem and a target population to guide your program planning and evaluation efforts in this course.

 

To prepare:

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• Examine the topics presented in “Healthy People 2020” and the Institute of Medicine’s Future of Nursing. Select a health-promotion and disease-prevention issue of national significance that has particular resonance or appeal for you.
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• Review literature related to the issue you have selected and, specifically, the problem and target population you may choose to focus on as you move forward with program planning.
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• Review this week’s course text readings. What questions or concerns, if any, do you have about how to identify a problem and a target population for program planning and evaluation?

Note: For Application 1, you need to identify a health care–related problem and a target population to guide program planning as you move forward in the course. If you have not already done so, read the instructions for Application 1 (provided this week) as your work on this Discussion to guide your development of that assignment.

 

Post a cohesive scholarly response that addresses the following:

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• Share the national health-promotion and disease-prevention issue you have selected. Describe the problem and target population you will most likely choose for Application 1, as you have considered it thus far.
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• Provide your evaluation of the impact of the problem on population health using citations from existing literature.
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• Pose any questions or concerns you have related to your problem and target population, your literature review, and/or other issues related to designing and evaluating programs. Ask your colleagues for support in addressing these questions or concerns.