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Maria was recently hired as a new nurse on the Family Home Visiting (FHV) team, just days before the severe acute respiratory syndrome SARS-CoV-2 was identified as the cause of a worldwide outbreak (the World Health Organization named the pandemic COVID-19 officially on March 11, 2020). She followed the chronology of events via news and social media sites. Soon after the first case was identified in her state, she received and began following the written and public briefings provided by the state health department. As more cases emerged in her state, her supervisor redirected her work to half-time FHV and half-time COVID case investigation. A required three-day refresher training was scheduled to cover case investigation and contact tracing.
During the training, the concepts of case investigation and contact tracing were discussed, and the known epidemiology of COVID-19 was reviewed. Interviewing techniques were practiced, as was how to use the state database for accessing and tracking COVID-19 cases. The training included a day and a half of supervised interviewing of patients with COVID-19, with feedback provided to improve the interactions and ensure that needed information was obtained. Without this training, Maria would have felt unprepared to take on these new responsibilities.
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MARIA'S NOTEBOOK Competency #2 Utilizes Basic Epidemiological Principles in Public Health Nursing Practice
Understands the relationship between community assessment and health promotion/disease prevention programs, especially the populations and programs with which the PHN works
Understands the relationships between risk and protective factors and health issues
Obtains and interprets information regarding risks and benefits to the community
Applies an epidemiological framework when assessing and intervening with individuals, families, communities, and systems
Source: Henry Street Consortium, 2022
USEFUL DEFINITIONS Agent: The primary cause of the health-related condition. Agents are most often classified into six main types: physical agents (e.g., excessive heat, noise, radiation, cold, injuries), chemical agents (e.g., drugs, heavy metals, poisons, acids), nutritive agents, infectious (or biological) agents, genetic agents, and psychological agents (Valanis, 1999). These agents are categorically referred to as causative factors (Merrill, 2021, p. 11).
Case Investigation and Contact Tracing: Fundamental activities that involve working with a patient (symptomatic and asymptomatic) who has been diagnosed with an infectious disease to identify and provide support to people (contacts) who may have been infected through exposure to the patient. This process prevents further transmission of disease by separating people who have (or may have) an infectious disease from people who do not. This core disease control measure has been employed by public health agency personnel for decades (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2022).
Communicability: The ability of a disease to be transmitted from one person to the next; communicability is determined by how likely a pathogen or an agent is to be transmitted from a diseased or infected person who is not immune and is susceptible (Merrill, 2021, p. 43).
Environment: Reflects the aggregate of those external conditions and ...