UMSON’s Community/Public Health Nursing Program Celebrates 60 Years

In 1966, American health care was beginning to look carefully at where we live in relation to health outcomes. Medicare and Medicaid were only a year old, and neighborhood health centers were taking root in underserved communities. Health professionals and policymakers were increasingly confronting the connections among poverty, access to care, and health.

That same year, UMSON launched a master’s specialty in community/public health nursing (CPH), preparing nurses to improve the health of communities locally, nationally, and globally through leadership, partnership, advocacy, and innovation.

Sixty years later, the specialty’s graduates have carried that preparation into careers across public health departments, schools, community organizations, research, education, and health policy. Along the way, the settings and challenges have changed, but there is a lasting thread: The work begins with understanding people not simply as patients, but as members of families, neighborhoods, and communities shaped by the conditions in which they live. Students develop skills in health promotion, program planning and evaluation, leadership, advocacy, health equity, and community engagement.

On Sept. 26, UMSON hosted a special anniversary event, “Community Health in Action: 60 Years of Caring, Innovating, and Leading,” honoring the Master of Science in Nursing CPH specialty’s rich history. It brought together alumni, students, faculty, staff, community partners, and public health leaders to recognize the impact of CPH graduates and explore the future of population and public health nursing.

“Today we celebrate more than a milestone,” said Yolanda Ogbolu, PhD '11, MS '05, BSN '04, NNP, FNAP, FAAN, the Bill and Joanne Conway Dean of the University of Maryland School of Nursing, as she welcomed attendees. “We celebrate six decades of trust, six decades of true impact, and six decades of partnership.”

Ogbolu recalled how she and Michelle R. Spencer, DNP '19, MS '06, BSN '84, RN, assistant professor and director of the CPH specialty, worked in acute care 30 years ago.

“One of the things we both realized is that we had a lot of passion about the community, and working in acute care left us with a lot of questions about how things were working and what would happen if we could impact care upstream,” Ogbolu said.

“Community and public health nursing has long been one of UMSON's defining strengths,” Ogbolu continued. “Through the Governor's Wellmobile Program, school-based health initiatives, home visitation programs, community screenings, health education efforts, neighborhood partnerships, and countless outreach initiatives, our faculty and students have worked where health truly begins, in the places where people live, learn, work, worship, and play.”

That broader perspective remains at the heart of how UMSON teaches the subject across all academic levels, Spencer said.

“For over 60 years this program has educated nurses to think about care outside the hospital,” she said. “UMSON prepares students by combining strong population health knowledge with real-world community experiences in diverse community settings.”

Highlights from 'Community Health in Action: 60 Years of Caring, Innovating, and Leading.'