Public Health Intervention Wheel

The purpose of the Public Health Intervention Wheel is to improve population health. This asset will help you understand the wheel by weaving in definitions and pictures. There are several examples in each section. Viewing this wheel will give you a place to start before developing your ideas and pictures.

Use the Public Health Intervention Wheel

Introduction

Public health nurses and other public health professionals work collaboratively with communities to create environments that promote health and prevent disease and disability. They use an ecological approach to respond to the needs of the communities and are proactive in program and policy development to enhance the health of populations. Public health nurses use the Nursing Intervention Wheel to define the scope of public health nursing practice by the type of intervention and the level of practice. Regardless of the site or the population, this core set of interventions represents public health nursing as a specialty practice of nursing. Although developed specifically as a Nursing Intervention Wheel it is easy to see that this broad-based intervention wheel also applies to the practice of many other public health disciplines.

This online version of this Public Health Intervention Wheel enhances the original wheel by using visual representations of the interventions by level of intervention in the everyday practice of public health nursing.

Acknowledgments

The online Public Health Intervention Wheel developers acknowledge the photograph contributions made to this project by public health nurses and registered nurses from across the United States. This project would not have been possible without the vision of Debra Olson, DNP, MPH, RN, Associate Dean for Education and Professor, University of Minnesota School of Public Health, and the guidance of Carolyn M. Garcia, PhD, MPH, RN, Assistant Professor, University of Minnesota School of Nursing. Special thanks goes to Janet Resop Reilly, DNP, APRN-BC, Assistant Professor, University of Wisconsin-Green Bay and Derryl Block, PhD, MPH, MSN, RN, Chair of the Professional Program in Nursing/Director BSN-LINC & Professor, University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, who spent countless hours providing their expertise, insight and clarification to the project. Gratitude goes to Dr. Reilly and Christine Vandenhouten PhD, RN, Assistant Professor, University of Wisconsin-Green Bay for providing access to their extensive photograph collection of public health nursing activities. Also, acknowledgement goes to Linda Olson Keller, Sue Strohschein and all their colleagues at the Minnesota Department of Health, Division of Community Health Services, Public Health Nursing Section, who developed the Public Health Intervention Wheel in March 2001.

Resources

Olson Keller, Linda, Susan Strohschein, Betty Lia-Hoagberg & Marjorie Schaffer. “Population-Based Public Health Interventions: Practice-Based and Evidence Supported.” Public Health Nursing. 2004, 21: 453-468.

Olson Keller, Linda, Susan Strohschein, Marjorie Schaffer & Betty Lia-Hoagberg. “Population- Based Public Health Interventions: Innovations in Practice, Teaching, and Management.” Public Health Nursing. 2004, 21:469-487.

Development Team

Wisconsin Division of Public Health
Rebecca Hovarter MS, RNBC

University of Wisconsin Green Bay
Janet Resop Reilly DNP, APRN-BC
Derryl Block PhD, MPH, MSN, RN

University of Minnesota School of Public Health Centers for Public Health Education & Outreach
Debra Olson, Principal Investigator
Iris Staubus, M.Ed., RN
Tonya Fitzgerald, MPA
Jason Hill

This tool was developed by the Midwest Center for Life-Long Learning in Public Health