The Potential Impact of a Master‘s Degree in Community/Public Health Nursing on Public Health Issues in Malawi
Public Deposited- Last Modified
- January 25, 2020
- Creator
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Johnson, Kelly A.
- Affiliation: Gillings School of Global Public Health, Public Health Leadership Program
- Abstract
- The overall research problem addressed in this paper is the projected or anticipated impact of a Community/Public Health Nursing (C/PH) Master‘s program on the public health of Malawi, a developing country in Southeast Africa. This research is important because Malawi faces many severe public health issues and solutions to these issues have proved elusive. In addition, Malawi has limited resources and must carefully consider the opportunity costs of choosing which potential solutions to fund. The purpose of this paper is to assist the Kamuzu College of Nursing in Malawi with a recommendation on whether to proceed with creating a Master‘s Degree in C/PH Nursing program. The specific interrelated public health issues that this program strives to address include the World Health Organizations Health Indicators, Economic Factors, Demographic Factors, Environmental Factors, and Education Factors. The research method for this paper is based on identifying the Public Health issues in Malawi through structured interviews with stakeholders, review of documents from Kamuzu College of Nursing, as well as publicly available material on the state of public health in Malawi. Based on these needs a review of the current research literature was conducted and recommendations and next steps presented. The research literature showed evidence of the positive impact C/PH Nurses have on public health issues, including improving health indicators. Additionally, the literature showed evidence of the correlation between the educational preparation of nurses and public health outcomes. Finally, the literature showed the positive impact on public health of higher education capacity development in the developing world. The literature did not show evidence of impact on public health of the problem of insufficient funding for nurse educational programs or sufficient pay for nurses, and only showed partial impact on the public‘s health from the issue of ―Brain Drain‖ and the HIV/AIDS toll on the nursing workforce in Malawi. The evidence supports a recommendation for the development of a Master‘s Degree in C/PH Nursing, but only after a comprehensive effort to rectify several prominent issues. Leadership actions recommended were based on UNESCO‘s Framework for Priority Action for Change and Development of Higher Education, and several examples of these actions were explored specific to Malawi‘s development of a Master‘s Degree in C/PH Nursing.
- Date of publication
- August 2010
- DOI
- Resource type
- Rights statement
- In Copyright
- Note
- Track: HC&P
- Paper type: Research or research design
- Advisor
- Harlan, Christina
- Degree
- Master of Public Health
- Degree granting institution
- University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
- Graduation year
- 2010
- Language
- Deposit record
- b6f6bdeb-f0b9-4907-a2ad-769b5d2e1080
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