Using a public health nursing model to assess and plan for health needs at a summer day camp

The epidemiologic prevention process model (EPPM; Clark, 1992) was designed to guide community health nursing practice and research. The model incorporates epidemiologic, nursing, and public health perspectives and directs assessment of health needs and the planning, implementation, and evaluation of health care services at primary, secondary, and tertiary levels of prevention. The EPPM was used to assess needs for nursing services at a summer day camp and to plan to meet those needs. Assessment indicated that underlying factors in each of four components of the model (human biology, environment, lifestyle, and the health system) contributed to needs for nursing services. Assessment data were used to derive community nursing diagnoses and to plan interventions to meet identified health care needs. In this application, the EPPM was found to be an effective way of organizing and interpreting findings and of translating those findings into improved health care services in a camp setting.