NUR 444 PRACTICE QUESTIONS | COMMUNITY HEALTH NURSING
STUDY GUIDE & PRACTICE TEST 2026/2027
1. Which of the following best describes community-based nursing?
a. A philosophy that guides family-centered illness care
b. Providing care with a focus on the groups needs
c. Giving care with a focus on the aggregates needs
d. A value system in which all clients receive optimal care - ANS ✔✔ANS: A
By definition, community-based nursing is nursing that focuses on family-centered illness care to
individuals and families in the community.
2. Which of the following best describes community-oriented nursing?
a. Focusing on the provision of care to individuals and families
b. Providing care to manage acute or chronic conditions
c. Giving direct care to ill individuals within their family setting
d. Having the goal of health promotion and disease prevention - ANS ✔✔ANS: D
By definition, community-oriented nursing has the goal of preserving, protecting, or maintaining health
to promote the quality of life. All nurses may focus on individuals and families, give direct care to ill
persons within their family setting, and help manage acute or chronic conditions.
3. Which of the following is the primary focus of public health nursing?
a. Families and groups
b. Illness-oriented care
c. Individuals within the family unit
d. Promotion of quality of life - ANS ✔✔ANS: D
The key difference between community-based and community-oriented nursing is that community-
based nurses deal primarily with illness-oriented care, whereas community-oriented nursesor public
health nursesprovide health care to promote quality of life.
4. Which of the following is responsible for the dramatic increase in life expectancy during the twentieth
century?
,a. Technology increases in the field of medical laboratory research
b. Advances in surgical techniques and procedures
c. Sanitation and other public health activities
d. Use of antibiotics to fight infections - ANS ✔✔ANS: C
Improvement in control of infectious diseases through immunizations, sanitation, and other public
health activities led to the increase in life expectancy from less than 50 years in 1900 to more than 77
years in 2002.
5. A nurse is developing a plan to decrease the number of premature deaths in the community. Which of
the following interventions would most likely be implemented by the nurse?
a. Increase the communitys knowledge about hospice care.
b. Promote healthy lifestyle behavior choices among the community members.
c. Encourage employers to have wellness centers at each industrial site.
d. Ensure timely and effective medical intervention and treatment for community members. - ANS
✔✔ANS: B
Public health approaches could help prevent about 70% of early deaths by influencing the way people
eat, drink, drive, engage in exercise, and treat the environment.
6. Which of the following is a basic assumption of public health efforts?
a. Health disparities among any groups are morally and legally wrong.
b. Health care is the most important priority in government planning and funding.
c. The health of individuals cannot be separated from the health of the community.
d. The government is responsible for lengthening the life span of Americans. - ANS ✔✔ANS: C
Public health can be described as what society collectively does to ensure that conditions exist in which
people can be healthy.
7. Which of the following actions would most likely be performed by a public health nurse?
a. Asking community leaders what interventions should be chosen
b. Assessing the community and deciding on appropriate interventions
c. Using data from the main health care institutions in the community to determine needed health
services
,d. Working with community groups to create policies to improve the environment - ANS ✔✔ANS: D
Although the public health nurse might engage in any of the tasks listed, he or she works primarily with
members of the community to carry out core public health functions, including assessment of the
population as a whole and engaging in promoting health and improving the environment.
8. Which of the following public health nurses most clearly fulfills the responsibilities of this role?
a. The nurse who met with several groups to discuss community recreation issues
b. The nurse who spent the day attending meetings of various health agencies
c. The nurse who talked to several people about their particular health concerns
d. The nurse who watched the city council meeting on local cable television - ANS ✔✔ANS: B
Any of these descriptions might represent a nurse communicating, cooperating, or collaborating with
community residents or groups about health concerns. However, the nurse who spent the day attending
meetings of various health agencies is the most representative, because in public health, concerns are
broader than recreation, individual concerns are not as important as aggregate priorities, and watching
television (a one-way form of communication) is less effective than interacting with others.
9. Which of the following best defines aggregate?
a. A large group of persons
b. A collection of individuals and families
c. A group of persons who share one or more characteristics
d. Another name for demographic group - ANS ✔✔ANS: C
An aggregate is defined as a collection of people who share one or more personal or environmental
characteristics, such as geography or special interest.
10. A registered nurse was just employed as a public health nurse. Which question would be the most
relevant for the nurse to ask?
a. Which groups are at the greatest risk for problems?
b. Which patients should I see first as I begin my day?
c. With which physicians will I be most closely collaborating?
d. With which nursing assistants will I partner the most? - ANS ✔✔ANS: A
Asking which groups are at greatest risk reflects a community-oriented perspective. The other possible
responses reflect a focus on individuals.
, 11. Making sure that essential community-oriented health services are available defines which of the
core public health functions?
a. Policy development
b. Assessment
c. Assurance
d. Scientific knowledge-based care - ANS ✔✔ANS: C
Public health is based on scientific knowledge but is not a core function. The definition does not fit the
terms assessment or policy development.
12. When talking to a womens group at the senior citizens center, the nurse reminded them that the
only way the center would be able to afford to provide transportation services for them would be for
them to continue to write letters to their local city council representatives requesting funding for such a
service. What was the nurse trying to accomplish through this action?
a. Ensure that the women did not expect the nurse to solve their problem
b. Demonstrate that the nurse understood the womens concerns and needs
c. Express empathy, support, and concern
d. Help the women engage in political action - ANS ✔✔ANS: D
Public health nurses engage themselves and others in policy development and encourage and assist
persons to communicate their needs to those with the power to take action.
13. The public health nurse has a clear vision of what needs to be done and where to begin to improve
the health of the community. Why would the nurse spend time meeting with community groups to
discuss the most important task to be addressed first?
a. To increase the groups self-esteem
b. To maintain communication links with the groups
c. To make the groups feel good about their contribution
d. To work with the groups, not for the groups - ANS ✔✔ANS: D
Historically, health care providers have been accused of providing care for or to people without actually
involving the recipients in the decisions. Public health nursing is a with the peoplenot a to the people or
for the peopleapproach to planning.
STUDY GUIDE & PRACTICE TEST 2026/2027
1. Which of the following best describes community-based nursing?
a. A philosophy that guides family-centered illness care
b. Providing care with a focus on the groups needs
c. Giving care with a focus on the aggregates needs
d. A value system in which all clients receive optimal care - ANS ✔✔ANS: A
By definition, community-based nursing is nursing that focuses on family-centered illness care to
individuals and families in the community.
2. Which of the following best describes community-oriented nursing?
a. Focusing on the provision of care to individuals and families
b. Providing care to manage acute or chronic conditions
c. Giving direct care to ill individuals within their family setting
d. Having the goal of health promotion and disease prevention - ANS ✔✔ANS: D
By definition, community-oriented nursing has the goal of preserving, protecting, or maintaining health
to promote the quality of life. All nurses may focus on individuals and families, give direct care to ill
persons within their family setting, and help manage acute or chronic conditions.
3. Which of the following is the primary focus of public health nursing?
a. Families and groups
b. Illness-oriented care
c. Individuals within the family unit
d. Promotion of quality of life - ANS ✔✔ANS: D
The key difference between community-based and community-oriented nursing is that community-
based nurses deal primarily with illness-oriented care, whereas community-oriented nursesor public
health nursesprovide health care to promote quality of life.
4. Which of the following is responsible for the dramatic increase in life expectancy during the twentieth
century?
,a. Technology increases in the field of medical laboratory research
b. Advances in surgical techniques and procedures
c. Sanitation and other public health activities
d. Use of antibiotics to fight infections - ANS ✔✔ANS: C
Improvement in control of infectious diseases through immunizations, sanitation, and other public
health activities led to the increase in life expectancy from less than 50 years in 1900 to more than 77
years in 2002.
5. A nurse is developing a plan to decrease the number of premature deaths in the community. Which of
the following interventions would most likely be implemented by the nurse?
a. Increase the communitys knowledge about hospice care.
b. Promote healthy lifestyle behavior choices among the community members.
c. Encourage employers to have wellness centers at each industrial site.
d. Ensure timely and effective medical intervention and treatment for community members. - ANS
✔✔ANS: B
Public health approaches could help prevent about 70% of early deaths by influencing the way people
eat, drink, drive, engage in exercise, and treat the environment.
6. Which of the following is a basic assumption of public health efforts?
a. Health disparities among any groups are morally and legally wrong.
b. Health care is the most important priority in government planning and funding.
c. The health of individuals cannot be separated from the health of the community.
d. The government is responsible for lengthening the life span of Americans. - ANS ✔✔ANS: C
Public health can be described as what society collectively does to ensure that conditions exist in which
people can be healthy.
7. Which of the following actions would most likely be performed by a public health nurse?
a. Asking community leaders what interventions should be chosen
b. Assessing the community and deciding on appropriate interventions
c. Using data from the main health care institutions in the community to determine needed health
services
,d. Working with community groups to create policies to improve the environment - ANS ✔✔ANS: D
Although the public health nurse might engage in any of the tasks listed, he or she works primarily with
members of the community to carry out core public health functions, including assessment of the
population as a whole and engaging in promoting health and improving the environment.
8. Which of the following public health nurses most clearly fulfills the responsibilities of this role?
a. The nurse who met with several groups to discuss community recreation issues
b. The nurse who spent the day attending meetings of various health agencies
c. The nurse who talked to several people about their particular health concerns
d. The nurse who watched the city council meeting on local cable television - ANS ✔✔ANS: B
Any of these descriptions might represent a nurse communicating, cooperating, or collaborating with
community residents or groups about health concerns. However, the nurse who spent the day attending
meetings of various health agencies is the most representative, because in public health, concerns are
broader than recreation, individual concerns are not as important as aggregate priorities, and watching
television (a one-way form of communication) is less effective than interacting with others.
9. Which of the following best defines aggregate?
a. A large group of persons
b. A collection of individuals and families
c. A group of persons who share one or more characteristics
d. Another name for demographic group - ANS ✔✔ANS: C
An aggregate is defined as a collection of people who share one or more personal or environmental
characteristics, such as geography or special interest.
10. A registered nurse was just employed as a public health nurse. Which question would be the most
relevant for the nurse to ask?
a. Which groups are at the greatest risk for problems?
b. Which patients should I see first as I begin my day?
c. With which physicians will I be most closely collaborating?
d. With which nursing assistants will I partner the most? - ANS ✔✔ANS: A
Asking which groups are at greatest risk reflects a community-oriented perspective. The other possible
responses reflect a focus on individuals.
, 11. Making sure that essential community-oriented health services are available defines which of the
core public health functions?
a. Policy development
b. Assessment
c. Assurance
d. Scientific knowledge-based care - ANS ✔✔ANS: C
Public health is based on scientific knowledge but is not a core function. The definition does not fit the
terms assessment or policy development.
12. When talking to a womens group at the senior citizens center, the nurse reminded them that the
only way the center would be able to afford to provide transportation services for them would be for
them to continue to write letters to their local city council representatives requesting funding for such a
service. What was the nurse trying to accomplish through this action?
a. Ensure that the women did not expect the nurse to solve their problem
b. Demonstrate that the nurse understood the womens concerns and needs
c. Express empathy, support, and concern
d. Help the women engage in political action - ANS ✔✔ANS: D
Public health nurses engage themselves and others in policy development and encourage and assist
persons to communicate their needs to those with the power to take action.
13. The public health nurse has a clear vision of what needs to be done and where to begin to improve
the health of the community. Why would the nurse spend time meeting with community groups to
discuss the most important task to be addressed first?
a. To increase the groups self-esteem
b. To maintain communication links with the groups
c. To make the groups feel good about their contribution
d. To work with the groups, not for the groups - ANS ✔✔ANS: D
Historically, health care providers have been accused of providing care for or to people without actually
involving the recipients in the decisions. Public health nursing is a with the peoplenot a to the people or
for the peopleapproach to planning.
