Posted: September 30th, 2023

Epidemiology of Population Health

Epidemiology of Population Health

Read the required readings and define the core functions of epidemiology. Select one of the epidemiologic core functions and explain how the core function might be demonstrated in clinical practice by a master’s-prepared registered nurse. Can you relate this or one of the other functions to an example or content in your text readings?

Unit 6 Reading

In Clinical Epidemiology, read:

· Chapter 11: “Chance”

· Chapter 12: “Cause”

· Chapter 13: “Summarizing the Evidence”

· Chapter 14: “Knowledge Management”

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2011). Lesson 2: Summarizing data. In Principles of epidemiology in public health practice: An introduction to applied epidemiology and biostatistics (3rd ed.). https://www.cdc.gov/csels/dsepd/ss1978/lesson2/section4.html

· Section 4: “Properties of Frequency Distributions”

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2011). Lesson 2: Summarizing data. In Principles of epidemiology in public health practice: An introduction to applied epidemiology and biostatistics (3rd. ed.). https://www.cdc.gov/csels/dsepd/ss1978/lesson2/section8.html

· Section 8: “Choosing the Right Measure of Central Location and Spread”

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2020). Behavioral risk factor surveillance system. https://www.cdc.gov/brfss/

Epidemiology of Population Health

Epidemiology is the study of disease patterns, causes, and control in defined populations. It plays a crucial role in public health by identifying health issues, determining their root causes, and informing prevention strategies (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2011). The core functions of epidemiology aim to assess, diagnose, investigate, and educate regarding community health issues (CDC, 2011). This paper will define the four core functions of epidemiology and explain how one function relates to clinical nursing practice through an example. Relevant readings from assigned sources will be discussed to contextualize these concepts.
Core Functions of Epidemiology
The four core functions that define the scope of epidemiology are assessment, diagnosis, investigation, and informing/educating (CDC, 2011). Assessment involves monitoring the health status of populations through metrics like mortality and morbidity rates. This function provides an overall picture of community well-being and highlights priority areas. Diagnosis entails identifying specific health problems, outbreaks, environmental hazards, or at-risk groups within the population that require further examination. Investigation goes a step further by studying diagnosed issues using epidemiological methods to determine etiology, risk factors, and transmission patterns. The final function is informing and educating individuals and communities about identified health issues and their contributing causes. This empowers the public to take preventive action and support mitigation strategies (CDC, 2011).
Diagnosis in Clinical Practice
One core function especially relevant to clinical nursing is diagnosis of community health problems and hazards. Nurses are uniquely positioned at the frontlines of healthcare delivery and often the first to encounter emerging issues. Through documentation of patient symptoms, diagnoses, and trends, nurses can help epidemiologists recognize patterns indicative of an outbreak or epidemiological concern worthy of investigation (CDC, 2011).
As an example, a primary care nurse may notice an unusual uptick in gastrointestinal illness presentations over the past month. By reporting this observation to local public health authorities, it could trigger applied epidemiology in action. Contact tracing of infected individuals may reveal exposure to a contaminated food source. Environmental sampling of implicated restaurants or processing plants allows identification of the causative agent. With a confirmed diagnosis, targeted public advisories can be issued to prevent ongoing spread. Early detection through astute clinical observation and reporting is key to effective outbreak management (CDC, 2020).
The assigned CDC lesson discusses frequency distributions as a tool for summarizing health data in a meaningful way (CDC, 2011, Section 4). By tracking diagnoses over time, nurses essentially create frequency distributions from their documentation. Any anomalies in the distribution may signal an emerging issue for epidemiologists to explore further. In this manner, nursing practice directly enables the diagnostic function of epidemiology.
Summarizing the Evidence
To summarize the evidence from assigned sources, the CDC principles of epidemiology textbook provides foundational context on the core functions and tools of the discipline (CDC, 2011). Frequency distributions allow epidemiologists to assess community health metrics and recognize patterns indicative of problems. The Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) is a prime example of epidemiological surveillance in action, with nurses contributing vital clinical data (CDC, 2020).
Through chapters in Clinical Epidemiology on chance, cause, summarizing evidence, and knowledge management, the text reinforces epidemiology’s role in determining etiology and translating findings into policy (Sackett et al., 2019). Nurses play an integral part in the evidence-gathering process by documenting early signs of issues for epidemiologists to investigate. Their observations from direct patient care feed directly into several core functions, especially diagnosis of emerging health problems.
Conclusion
In summary, the four core functions of epidemiology work in tandem to protect population health. Of these, diagnosis of community issues relies heavily on clinical observations and documentation by nurses. Through reporting anomalies to local health departments, nurses activate epidemiological surveillance systems. Their records provide raw data enabling frequency distributions and pattern recognition. This supports epidemiologists’ responsibility to identify problems deserving further study. Nurses thus make important contributions enabling epidemiology to fulfill its mission of assessing risks and informing prevention of illness in communities.
References
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2011). Lesson 2: Summarizing data. In Principles of epidemiology in public health practice: An introduction to applied epidemiology and biostatistics (3rd ed.). https://www.cdc.gov/csels/dsepd/ss1978/lesson2/section4.html
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2020). Behavioral risk factor surveillance system. https://www.cdc.gov/brfss/
Sackett, D. L., Rosenberg, W. M., Gray, J. A., Haynes, R. B., & Richardson, W. S. (2019). Evidence based medicine: What it is and what it isn’t. Clinical Epidemiology, 13.

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