Skip to ContentGo to accessibility page
OpenStax Logo
Population Health for Nurses

Introduction

Population Health for NursesIntroduction
Figure 7.1 Family Nurse Practitioner and Certified Diabetes Educator Carmen Morales-Board speaks about the impact of the Affordable Care Act. (credit: modification of work “Carmen Morales: Thank You Affordable Care Act” by Nancy Pelosi/Flickr, CC BY 2.0)

Chapter Outline

Introduction

As a pediatric nurse, Maria Sanchez spends a lot of her time making babies cry, but she knows she is doing so for a good cause. As a public health nurse, she provides routine vaccinations to children from birth through their teens, ensuring they are protected from preventable diseases like measles and polio. Sanchez has first-hand experience working within the context of public health policy—the laws, regulations, programs, behaviors, and decisions implemented within a society to promote public health.

Public health policy takes many forms, ranging from legislative policies to community outreach interventions, and it affects many fields, including health care, insurance, education, agriculture, and business, among others. Public health policy development and intervention occur at the local, state, national, and global levels:

  • On a local level, a city council may develop policies to limit smoking on city properties.
  • On a state level, a state legislature may pass emergency preparedness laws or regulations for its citizens.
  • On a national level, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) provide policies to govern the administration of vaccinations in the United States; the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) develops policies related to the development and sale of food and drug items.
  • On a global level, the World Health Organization (WHO) provides leadership on public health matters and establishes policies such as those related to controlling pandemics like COVID-19.

The most important focus of any public health policy is ensuring positive health outcomes for communities. Public health policy is essential to physical health outcomes and mental, social, and economic well-being.

This chapter provides an in-depth analysis of public health policies and regulations and their influence on the role of the community health/population health nurse and health outcomes for communities.

PreviousNext
Order a print copy
Citation/Attribution
Reuse and redistribution of this content in digital or print format:
  • This book may not be used in the training of large language models or otherwise be ingested into large language models or generative AI offerings without OpenStax's prior written permission.
  • This book uses the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License, which means that you can reuse and modify the material only for noncommercial purposes, must attribute OpenStax, and must distribute any derivative works under the same license.
  • Any commercial printing of this textbook, including using a local or custom printer, must be approved by OpenStax, and proper citation provided.
  • OpenStax-copyrighted images, activities, assessments, and similar components of this book are subject to the same licensing – CC-BY-NC-SA. They can be used for noncommercial purposes with attribution. Commercial use requires permission.
  • Permission requests: Anyone who intends to incorporate this content (including text, images, and other components) into large language models, use it in AI offerings, use it commercially (including in print), and/or has questions about another use case is welcome to complete our reuse request form.
Attribution information
  • If you are redistributing all or part of this book in a noncommercial print format, then you must include on every physical page the following attribution:

    Access for free at https://openstax.org/books/population-health/pages/1-introduction

  • If you are redistributing all or part of this book in a noncommercial digital format, then for every page that includes OpenStax content, you must license the derivative work under the same CC-BY-NC-SA license as the original, and include on every digital page view the following attribution:

    Access for free at https://openstax.org/books/population-health/pages/1-introduction

Citation information

The information below includes the information needed to generate citations in most major styles (APA, MLA, etc.); you must reformat and organize the information as needed to fit the requirements of the style. Use the information below to generate a citation. We recommend using a citation tool such as this one.

© Apr 23, 2026 OpenStax. Textbook content produced by OpenStax is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License. The OpenStax name, OpenStax logo, OpenStax book covers, OpenStax CNX name, and OpenStax CNX logo, and Rice University name, and Rice University logo trademarks, or wordmarks are not subject to the Creative Commons license and may not be reproduced without the prior and express written consent of Rice University.