The thoroughly updated Fifth Edition of this AJN award-winning text examines the contemporary public health nurse's role as a hands-on caregiver, community detective, and epidemiologist. Emphasizing primary care, community assessment, and program planning, the book provides practical tools for working with communities to improve health and includes exemplars from communities throughout the world.

This edition integrates Healthy People 2010 objectives throughout the exemplars. Three new chapters discuss differences between population-focused and individual-focused care; informatics in community/home health nursing; and communities in danger from bioterrorism, infectious disease, or disasters. This edition also includes more examples of rural community assessment.