Chapter 1: Public Health and Nursing Practice
Multiple Choice
Identify the choice that best completes the statement or answers the question.
____ 1. Public health nurses (PHNs) know they must approach a public health issue with an understanding of the
related underlying risk factors to develop effective nursing interventions. They evaluate these risk factors
from two perspectives:
1. Disease; individual
2. Intervention; government
3. Epidemic; population
4. Individual; population
____ 2. A nursing student is studying public health. She learns that, according to C.E.A. Winslow’s definition, some
of the goals of public health include disease prevention, promoting health, control of communicable
infections, and __________________.
1. Risk assessment for disease
2. Promotion of primary care
3. Organization of medical and nursing services for the early diagnosis and preventive
treatment of disease
4. Governmental safety regulations
____ 3. If the international medical community was working to contain several worldwide pandemics, they would
look to the World Health Organization (WHO), which is:
1. The public health arm of the United Nations.
2. Working to improve health and well-being for the global population.
3. Working with nurses to promote public health interventions.
4. All of the above.
____ 4. The Institute of Medicine (IOM), now known as the Health and Medicine Division (HMD) of the National
Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, stated in their report, The Future of the Public’s Health,
that there are three core functions that society carries out to collectively support the optimum conditions for
public health. Which one of the following is not one of these functions?
1. Prevention
2. Assessment
3. Policy development
4. Assurance
____ 5. With aging, there is an increased prevalence of both noncommunicable (chronic) and communicable disease
(NCD). The most pressing issue from a public health perspective based on this increase is:
1. An increased demand for long-term care
2. An increased need for further research
3. Further exploration of the developmental stages related to aging
4. Decreased cost of medications.
____ 6. A PHN would like to use the Dahlgren-Whitehead model to help herself and other local practitioners
understand health in populations. She understands that the Dahlgren-Whitehead ecological model assumes
that:
1. There are multiple determinants of health, and thus multiple strategies are needed.
2. A population and environmental approach is essential.
3. Linkages and relationships are crucial.
Copyright © 2020 F. A. Davis Company
, 4. All of the above.
____ 7. The PHN completed a community assessment and found that the obesity rate in one of the neighborhoods was
higher than the other neighborhoods in the county. She suspects that this is partially due to limited access to
full-service grocery stores and a lack of dedicated safe venues for exercise. Assuming her conclusion is
correct, what category or categories of determinants of health would these issues within the community fall
into?
1. Upstream determinants of health
2. Downstream determinants of health
3. Behavioral determinants of health
4. Genetic determinants of health
____ 8. Two PHNs working in a large urban community notice that community members are rarely engaged in the
process of planning interventions aimed at addressing a particular increase in a specific disease in the
community. For their next project, they include community collaboration as an essential component of the
development, implementation, and evaluation of the program. When questioned by others, they report that
there is evidence that community collaboration increases effectiveness and productivity, empowers the
participants, strengthens social engagement, and ______.
1. Decreases disease rates
2. Ensures accountability
3. Increases the availability of treatment for the targeted disease
4. Improves screening rates
____ 9. Which one of the following scenarios is not an example of community collaboration?
1. Local service groups working to organize disaster relief for tornado victims
2. A city council passing an ordinance to stop smoking in restaurants
3. An advocacy group working with the local churches to improve health care for the
indigent with mental health disorders
4. A school working with the local health department to start a school clinic
____ 10. Which layer of government is primarily responsible for issuing quarantines during a communicable disease
outbreak?
1. Federal
2. State
3. Local
4. All of the above
____ 11. As a PHN in a small local public health department, you understand that based on federal mandates your
public health department routinely performs all but which of the following?
1. Surveillance of disease at the local level
2. Investigation of disease outbreaks
3. Licensing of local hospitals
4. Quarantine
____ 12. The PHN recognizes that environmental science, epidemiology, biostatistics, biomedical sciences, and ____
form the foundational subjects of public health.
1. Economics
2. The humanities
3. Social and behavioral sciences
4. Anthropology
____ 13. As defined by the World Health Organization (WHO), an example of a health promotion intervention is ____
whereas a risk reduction/health protection intervention is ____.
Copyright © 2020 F. A. Davis Company
Multiple Choice
Identify the choice that best completes the statement or answers the question.
____ 1. Public health nurses (PHNs) know they must approach a public health issue with an understanding of the
related underlying risk factors to develop effective nursing interventions. They evaluate these risk factors
from two perspectives:
1. Disease; individual
2. Intervention; government
3. Epidemic; population
4. Individual; population
____ 2. A nursing student is studying public health. She learns that, according to C.E.A. Winslow’s definition, some
of the goals of public health include disease prevention, promoting health, control of communicable
infections, and __________________.
1. Risk assessment for disease
2. Promotion of primary care
3. Organization of medical and nursing services for the early diagnosis and preventive
treatment of disease
4. Governmental safety regulations
____ 3. If the international medical community was working to contain several worldwide pandemics, they would
look to the World Health Organization (WHO), which is:
1. The public health arm of the United Nations.
2. Working to improve health and well-being for the global population.
3. Working with nurses to promote public health interventions.
4. All of the above.
____ 4. The Institute of Medicine (IOM), now known as the Health and Medicine Division (HMD) of the National
Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, stated in their report, The Future of the Public’s Health,
that there are three core functions that society carries out to collectively support the optimum conditions for
public health. Which one of the following is not one of these functions?
1. Prevention
2. Assessment
3. Policy development
4. Assurance
____ 5. With aging, there is an increased prevalence of both noncommunicable (chronic) and communicable disease
(NCD). The most pressing issue from a public health perspective based on this increase is:
1. An increased demand for long-term care
2. An increased need for further research
3. Further exploration of the developmental stages related to aging
4. Decreased cost of medications.
____ 6. A PHN would like to use the Dahlgren-Whitehead model to help herself and other local practitioners
understand health in populations. She understands that the Dahlgren-Whitehead ecological model assumes
that:
1. There are multiple determinants of health, and thus multiple strategies are needed.
2. A population and environmental approach is essential.
3. Linkages and relationships are crucial.
Copyright © 2020 F. A. Davis Company
, 4. All of the above.
____ 7. The PHN completed a community assessment and found that the obesity rate in one of the neighborhoods was
higher than the other neighborhoods in the county. She suspects that this is partially due to limited access to
full-service grocery stores and a lack of dedicated safe venues for exercise. Assuming her conclusion is
correct, what category or categories of determinants of health would these issues within the community fall
into?
1. Upstream determinants of health
2. Downstream determinants of health
3. Behavioral determinants of health
4. Genetic determinants of health
____ 8. Two PHNs working in a large urban community notice that community members are rarely engaged in the
process of planning interventions aimed at addressing a particular increase in a specific disease in the
community. For their next project, they include community collaboration as an essential component of the
development, implementation, and evaluation of the program. When questioned by others, they report that
there is evidence that community collaboration increases effectiveness and productivity, empowers the
participants, strengthens social engagement, and ______.
1. Decreases disease rates
2. Ensures accountability
3. Increases the availability of treatment for the targeted disease
4. Improves screening rates
____ 9. Which one of the following scenarios is not an example of community collaboration?
1. Local service groups working to organize disaster relief for tornado victims
2. A city council passing an ordinance to stop smoking in restaurants
3. An advocacy group working with the local churches to improve health care for the
indigent with mental health disorders
4. A school working with the local health department to start a school clinic
____ 10. Which layer of government is primarily responsible for issuing quarantines during a communicable disease
outbreak?
1. Federal
2. State
3. Local
4. All of the above
____ 11. As a PHN in a small local public health department, you understand that based on federal mandates your
public health department routinely performs all but which of the following?
1. Surveillance of disease at the local level
2. Investigation of disease outbreaks
3. Licensing of local hospitals
4. Quarantine
____ 12. The PHN recognizes that environmental science, epidemiology, biostatistics, biomedical sciences, and ____
form the foundational subjects of public health.
1. Economics
2. The humanities
3. Social and behavioral sciences
4. Anthropology
____ 13. As defined by the World Health Organization (WHO), an example of a health promotion intervention is ____
whereas a risk reduction/health protection intervention is ____.
Copyright © 2020 F. A. Davis Company
