Which question asked by a novice nurse would be most reflective of an understanding of the role of a public health nurse?

Choice A reason: Identifying at-risk groups, like the elderly for flu, reflects public health’s population focus. It drives prevention and resource allocation, targeting interventions where disease burden is highest, aligning with epidemiology and community health principles central to the role comprehensively and effectively.

Choice B reason: Prioritizing individual patients suits clinical nursing, not public health’s broader scope. It focuses on immediate care, like triaging a clinic, missing the population-level risk assessment and prevention strategies that define public health nursing’s systemic approach distinctly and fundamentally here.

Choice C reason: Collaborating with physicians is clinical, not public health-specific. It’s relevant but secondary to assessing community needs, like outbreak risks, which public health nurses prioritize over individual provider partnerships, emphasizing population health over bedside coordination primarily and consistently overall.

Choice D reason: Partnering with assistants is operational, not strategic. Public health nursing focuses on community risk, like sanitation issues, not delegating tasks. This reflects clinical logistics, not the population-based, preventive role central to public health nursing’s mission and practice distinctly here.