Community Guide Use
Adjunct Professor of Southern Connecticut State University’s Department of Public Health, Betty C. Jung RN MPH MCHES used The Guide to Community Preventive Services (The Community Guide) to introduce 70 college students to public health program planning. Click the PDF icon to download the full text of this Community Guide success story.

Implementation
Over two semesters from August 2012 – May 2013, Professor Jung assigned 70 students in a wellness course a writing assignment designed to help them address public health problems. As a part of the assignment, students used The Community Guide to create assessments by gathering information, such as the problem description and related successful interventions. Based on the assessment, students developed program proposals describing how to apply the specific interventions to the identified target population’s problem. The students then developed two interventions that focused on education, policy, or environment. They also identified the Healthy People 2020 Objectives their proposed interventions addressed and created data collection plans for monitoring and evaluating their interventions.

Outcomes
After completing the assignment, students expressed a better understanding of issues affecting population health and the evidence-based interventions used to address them. The students successfully used The Community Guide to plan public health programs and:

• Identified public health issues/problems
• Summarized the major assessment findings and described how interventions addressed the issues/problems identified
• Discussed potential harm from the proposed interventions
• Determined the data needed to monitor progress

Due to changes to the course curriculum, this assignment is no longer a part of the wellness course.  However, Professor Jung plans to incorporate The Community Guide into future lectures to spread awareness about the importance and effectiveness of using evidence-based interventions.

Model Implementation
Other universities can expand on the model Betty C. Jung implemented at Southern Connecticut State University by taking the assignment from “theory” to real life practice.  To achieve this, others can adapt the sample curriculum as a year-long internship or practicum in the field by partnering with community leaders and lawmakers to effect change.

View Professor Jung’s website dedicated to the course curriculum and sample proposals developed by the students.

Access more Community Guide success stories.

Tell us your thoughts on how evidence-based strategies can be incorporated into public health curriculums by leaving a comment below.