Clinical prevention is defined as health promotion and risk reduction/illness prevention

for individuals and families. Population health is defined to include aggregate,

community, environmental/occupational, and cultural/socioeconomic dimensions of

health. Aggregates are groups of individuals defined by a shared characteristic such as

gender, diagnosis, or age. These framing definitions are endorsed by representatives of

multiple disciplines including nursing (Allan et al., 2004).

The implementation of clinical prevention and population health activities is central to

achieving the national goal of improving the health status of the population of the United

States. Unhealthy lifestyle behaviors account for over 50 percent of preventable deaths in

the U.S., yet prevention interventions are underutilized in health care settings. In an

effort to address this national goal, Healthy People 2010 supported the transformation of

clinical education by creating an objective to increase the proportion of schools of

medicine, nursing, and other health professionals that have a basic curriculum that

includes the core competencies in health promotion and disease prevention (Allan et al.,

2004; USHHS, 2000). DNP graduates engage in leadership to integrate and

institutionalize evidence-based clinical prevention and population health services for

individuals, aggregates, and populations.

Consistent with these national calls for action and with the longstanding focus on health

promotion and disease prevention in nursing curricula and roles, the DNP graduate has a

foundation in clinical prevention and population health. This foundation will enable

DNP graduates to analyze epidemiological, biostatistical, occupational, and

environmental data in the development, implementation, and evaluation of clinical

prevention and population health. Current concepts of public health, health promotion,

evidence-based recommendations, determinants of health, environmental/occupational

health, and cultural diversity and sensitivity guide the practice of DNP graduates. In

addition emerging knowledge regarding infectious diseases, emergency/disaster

preparedness, and intervention frame DNP graduates’ knowledge of clinical prevention

and population health.

The DNP program prepares the graduate to:

1. Analyze epidemiological, biostatistical, environmental, and other appropriate

scientific data related to individual, aggregate, and population health.

2. Synthesize concepts, including psychosocial dimensions and cultural diversity,

related to clinical prevention and population health in developing, implementing,

and evaluating interventions to address health promotion/disease prevention

efforts, improve health status/access patterns, and/or address gaps in care of

individuals, aggregates, or populations.

3. Evaluate care delivery models and/or strategies using concepts related to

community, environmental and occupational health, and cultural and

socioeconomic dimensions of health.