Nursing Workforce Educational Needs Assessment Population Health Certificate Program

Nursing education transformation is necessary to change population health outcomes. A needs assessment is essential to learn practice expectations for population health competency before designing an education program. The purpose of the project was to develop a population health certificate program for post-bachelor nursing workforce. The project aims were 1) to identify population health competency needs, 2) to prioritize population health competency needs, 3) to assess the feasibility of a post-bachelor population health certificate program, and 4) to make recommendations for a certificate program. A hybrid framework of Witkin and Altschuld's three-phase needs assessment model and the PARIHS Framework Guide successfully organized project implementation and evaluation to make recommendations for the population health certificate. Purposive sampling selected six knowledgeable strategic stakeholders from academia and practice to participate in 30-to-40-minute recorded Zoom interviews. Reiterative thematic analysis of the transcripts identified and prioritized population health competencies. The triangulation comparison of the results with AACN Nursing Professional Education Essentials tested the validity of the convergence of themes. The overarching theme discovered is that the nursing workforce needs to move understanding beyond point of care encounters to population-focused needs. The needs assessment discovered compelling evidence that post-bachelor nursing workforce needs advanced development in population-focused care to improve actionable responses to change population health outcomes. The feasibility assessment determined a need for additional assessment of resources to build capability for the population certificate program. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]