Overview
In NURS 434, learners will work through specific learning units, expanding their knowledge of the role of registered nurses within the Canadian healthcare system. They will learn how particular communities and populations face health disparities grounded in inequity and injustice as learners explore the challenges faced by individuals, families, and communities. Learners will also learn to see and support communities and populations’ resilience and strength in managing and improving their health.
Successful learners in NURS 434 can feel confident in understanding key community health concepts and in their foundation for assessing and collaborating with individuals, families, and communities. Importantly, they can apply a critical awareness of issues of social justice and equity, as well as the role that community health nurses can play in addressing these matters.
Outline
Unit 1
Unit 1A: Canadian Context of Community Health Nursing
Unit 1B: Tools and Principles of Community Health Nursing
Unit 2
Unit 2A: Rural, Remote and Isolated Health
Unit 2B: Gender and Health
Unit 2C: Newcomer Health
Unit 2D: Indigenous Health
Unit 3
Unit 3A: The Role of Policy, Power, and Politics in Health
Unit 3B: Challenging Systems and the Role of Advocacy in Community Nursing
Evaluation
To receive credit for Nursing 434 Community Health Promotion students must complete and submit all of the required assignments and achieve an overall composite grade of C (64%). All submitted assignments must follow the current edition of the APA Publication Manual.
Note: Assignment completion supports students meeting course and unit outcomes. Students are expected to include scholarly evidence to support the concepts and ideas presented in assignments. Scholarly evidence should be recent and relevant using articles published within the last 10 years (and preferably the last 5 years). The assignments and weighting of composite grades are as follows:
| Activity | Weight |
| Assignment 1: Critical News Article Analysis | 25% |
| Assignment 2: Community Health Assessment | 40% |
| Assignment 3: Policy Brief | 35% |
| Total | 100% |
To learn more about assignments and examinations, please refer to Athabasca University’s online Calendar.
Materials
Digital course materials
Links to the following course materials will be made available in the course:
Dosani, A., Etowa, J., & van Daalen-Smith, C. (2025). Stamler and Yiu’s community health nursing: A Canadian perspective (6th ed.). Pearson Canada Inc.
The NURS 434 learning activities are also supported with open source online resources (sometimes called Open Educational Resources or OERs), links to other online multi-media resources, and electronic references from the AU library.
Other Materials
All other course materials can be found online.