Public Health Education and Practice Using Geographic Information System Technology

Abstract

The use of geographic information system (GIS) technology allows public health practitioners to explore disparities in health, analyze disease outbreaks, and prioritize the use of limited resources for improving population health. Nursing students benefit from use of World Wide Web GIS resources as they develop knowledge and skill in assessing population health and planning interventions. This article identifies the benefits of GIS for public health practitioners, presents a communicable disease control application of GIS, and discusses a GIS module used in an undergraduate nursing education course. Uniform standards for making health data available for public use with GIS are discussed.

Spatial and Psychosocial Influences on Food Access in Rural Appalachia

“…Riner, Cunningham, and Johnson (2004) described public health nurses' use of GIS maps to organize educational outreach during an infectious disease outbreak, and to communicate with the public and other stakeholders about the evolving outbreak. WettaHall and colleagues (2004) used GIS as a low-cost strategic planning method for community organizations.…”

“…Hays, Davis, and Miranda (2006) described a student assignment to hand-mark neighborhood features on pre-printed GIS maps, and also to use a city map website to add data to their community assessments. Riner and colleagues (2004) trained undergraduate nursing students in a community health course to use an interactive metro-area mapping website to create maps specific to a selected health problem (Riner et al, 2004 The three exemplars of training students identified benefits and challenges in incorporating GIS into nursing student curricula. One benefit was the ability to develop and present maps that were more accurate and professional-looking than hand-drawn maps used previously (Riner et al, 2004).…”

“…Riner and colleagues (2004) trained undergraduate nursing students in a community health course to use an interactive metro-area mapping website to create maps specific to a selected health problem (Riner et al, 2004 The three exemplars of training students identified benefits and challenges in incorporating GIS into nursing student curricula. One benefit was the ability to develop and present maps that were more accurate and professional-looking than hand-drawn maps used previously (Riner et al, 2004). Hays and colleagues (2006) found that students demonstrated enhanced understanding of the role of the community environment on health outcomes.…”

EPICS: A Service Learning Program at Butler University

“…Also, it entails tools to access and analyze such information, and it offers user support and training. It is hosted by the POLIS Center of Indianapolis [22], which is an academic research center with a practical and applied orientation [23], [24]. The center concentrates on issues related to metropolitan Indianapolis and other mid-sized American cities.…”

“…They evaluate other team members plus the project leader. 2) The instructor interviews each of the students for [15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30] minutes to share the results of the peer evaluations and to discuss any issues that may arise. (Practice interviews are done midway through the semester.)…”