The Latin expression nihil sub sole novum-'there is nothing new under the sun'-applies to today's groundswell of renewed interest in the concept of population health (Neve, Hothersall, & Rodrigues, 2019). Population health is concerned with 'interrelated conditions and factors that influence the health of populations, identifies systematic variations in their patterns of occurrence, and applies the resulting knowledge to develop and implement policies and actions to improve the health and well-being of those populations' (Government of Canada, 2013). Renewed interest is evident in Canada, where a 'population health approach' is being used to reduce health inequities (Cohen et al., 2014), and in the United Kingdom (UK), where the Nursing and Midwifery Council recently revised its competencies to include population health (Lasater, Atherton, & Kyle, 2020). In Australia, the Victorian Department of Health and Human Services collaborated with the University of Melbourne to increase the number of population health course offerings (Naccarella, Butterworth, & Moore, 2016), while in the United States, the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) (2019) integrated population health concepts into its vision for nursing education. What has not been considered in exhortations to focus on population health is the role of professional or work identity and the accompanying tension created in trying to move nurse actions to the population health level. Since work identity is critical in determining the 'purpose and worth' of nursing (Willetts & Clarke, 2014, p. 165), it also may be useful in understanding nursing's uptake of population health. The analysis reported here arose from an earlier study whose purpose was to explore factors influencing public health nurses' decisions to obtain a graduate degree (Drevdahl & Canales, 2018). Data were gathered through semi-structured interviews with 30 U.S. nurses working in public health. During the interviews, study participants often discussed how they understood their role as public health nurses. Although these data