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NRS-425 Health Promotion and Population Health
NRS-425 Health Promotion and Population Health is a required course in Grand Canyon University’s RN-to-BSN program that teaches nursing students how to assess community health needs, apply epidemiological concepts, and plan health-education interventions for vulnerable populations. The entire course is built around a single multi-part deliverable — the Community Teaching Project — which takes you from identifying a public health issue through conducting a community assessment, developing a teaching plan, and delivering a community presentation.
If you are a working nurse trying to navigate this course while managing shifts and family, this guide maps every major assignment, links to a detailed guide and worked example for each one, and explains how the parts connect so the project makes sense as a whole.
What Is NRS-425?
NRS-425 is a community and population health course in GCU’s College of Nursing and Health Care Professions. It sits in the RN-to-BSN curriculum and prepares nurses to think beyond individual patients to the health of entire communities.
The course runs across five topics and centers on the Community Teaching Project, a multi-part assignment that builds progressively. Each topic adds a new layer: you identify a public health issue, assess the community, develop a teaching plan, deliver the education, and reflect on the experience. Two of the assignments carry benchmark status and are tied to program competencies.
Unlike clinical courses focused on bedside care, NRS-425 asks you to think like a public health nurse — using data, epidemiology, and health policy to improve outcomes for populations rather than individual patients.
What Are the NRS-425 Assignments?
The Community Teaching Project has several parts spread across the five topics. The three highest-stakes assignments are the ones students search for most and where the most points are earned or lost.
Topic 1: Epidemiology and Community Health (Benchmark)
The first benchmark asks you to select a public health issue, describe it with community-specific data and risk factors, explain how epidemiological concepts can prevent it, analyze a current policy addressing the issue, propose an evidence-based policy change, outline the steps to initiate that change, and identify the key stakeholders whose support is needed.
This is the foundation paper — the health issue you identify here drives every subsequent assignment. The rubric specifically checks for the epidemiologic triangle and the three levels of prevention.
Our guide: Epidemiology and Community Health: Guide + Example — includes a fully worked benchmark paper on Type 2 diabetes prevention with policy analysis, stakeholder mapping, and verified references.
Topic 2: Community Assessment and Windshield Survey (Benchmark)
The second benchmark has you assess the community using three data sources: the County Health Rankings, the EPA Environmental Justice Dashboard, and a windshield survey you conduct by driving through the community. You complete a template that synthesizes secondary data with your firsthand observations and identifies a priority health issue.
This is the assignment where students lose the most points, usually by writing vague windshield survey observations instead of specific, data-connected descriptions.
Our guide: Community Assessment and Windshield Survey: Guide + Example — includes a fully worked template with a fictitious community assessment, specific windshield survey observations, and a data-supported priority health issue.
Topic 3: Community Teaching Plan
The teaching plan asks you to develop a work plan proposal for a health-education session targeting the community you assessed. You write behavioral objectives across the cognitive, psychomotor, and affective domains, plan teaching strategies for each objective, describe your creative approach, and design an evaluation plan that measures whether each objective was met.
The teaching plan you develop here becomes the basis for the community presentation you deliver in Topic 5.
Our guide: Community Teaching Plan: Guide + Example — includes a fully worked proposal with four behavioral objectives, multi-sensory teaching strategies, and a one-to-one evaluation plan.
Topics 4–5: Community Presentation and Summary
In Topic 4, you deliver the teaching session to your community audience. In Topic 5, you write a summary reflecting on the experience, including audience feedback, what you learned, and the indirect care experience hours form. These are lower-stakes than the three benchmark assignments but still graded.
How Do the NRS-425 Assignments Build on Each Other?
The Community Teaching Project follows a deliberate progression that mirrors the public health nursing process.
Step 1 — Identify the problem. The epidemiology paper establishes what the health issue is, why it matters, and what policy levers exist.
Step 2 — Assess the community. The windshield survey and community assessment confirm the problem on the ground and triangulate it with secondary data.
Step 3 — Plan the intervention. The teaching plan translates the assessment into an actionable education session with measurable objectives.
Step 4 — Deliver and evaluate. The presentation puts the plan into practice, and the summary reflects on what worked and what to improve.
Each step depends on the one before it. Changing your health issue in Topic 3 after writing about a different one in Topic 1 creates inconsistency that the rubric penalizes. Choose your topic carefully in Topic 1 and carry it through the entire project.
What Concepts Does NRS-425 Cover?
NRS-425 covers a focused set of public and community health concepts:
Epidemiology — the epidemiologic triangle, incidence and prevalence, the three levels of prevention, and how epidemiological data informs nursing practice.
Community assessment — windshield surveys, secondary data analysis using County Health Rankings and the Environmental Justice Dashboard, and identification of priority health issues.
Health promotion — behavioral objectives across learning domains, teaching strategies for diverse populations, Healthy People 2030 alignment, and evaluation design.
Health policy — policy analysis, social justice and health equity, stakeholder mapping, and advocacy for policy change.
Vulnerable populations — health disparities, environmental justice, cultural competence, and the nurse’s role as advocate.
Tips for Succeeding in NRS-425
- Choose your health issue in Topic 1 and stick with it. Every subsequent assignment builds on it — changing mid-course creates rubric inconsistency.
- Be specific in the windshield survey. “35% of visible homes had deferred maintenance” earns points; “the area looked run-down” loses them.
- Write measurable behavioral objectives. Use the formula: who + action verb + what + by when + domain label.
- Connect everything to data. Every claim about your community should reference County Health Rankings, the EJ Dashboard, or a credible source.
- Align with Healthy People 2030. Cite the specific numbered objective, not just the topic area.
- Use the same community across all assignments. The project is designed as a cohesive narrative, not a collection of unrelated papers.
Other GCU RN-to-BSN Course Guides
Taking other courses this term? We have complete assignment guides with worked examples:
- HLT-362V Applied Statistics for Health Care — every assignment with worked examples, Excel formulas, and APA papers.
- PHI-413V Ethical and Spiritual Decision Making — benchmark case studies on healing and autonomy, death and dying, and spiritual needs.
More course guides publishing soon — bookmark this page or message us on WhatsApp to get notified.
NRS-425 Health Promotion and Population Health FAQ
Is NRS-425 hard?
NRS-425 is challenging because the Community Teaching Project requires fieldwork-style observation and multi-part continuity across five topics. However, the assignments follow clear templates and rubrics, and the course is designed for working nurses. Starting with a strong health-issue selection in Topic 1 makes every subsequent assignment easier.
What is the Community Teaching Project?
The Community Teaching Project is a multi-part assignment that runs across all five topics of NRS-425. You identify a public health issue, assess a community through data and a windshield survey, develop a teaching plan, deliver a community presentation, and write a reflective summary.
What is a windshield survey?
A windshield survey is a systematic community observation conducted from a moving vehicle. You drive through the community and document what you see — housing, transportation, health services, food access, environmental conditions, and social infrastructure — to assess community health needs firsthand.
How many benchmarks are in NRS-425?
NRS-425 includes two benchmark assignments: the Epidemiology and Community Health paper in Topic 1 and the Community Assessment with Windshield Survey in Topic 2. Both carry extra weight and are tied to program competencies.
Do I need to do the windshield survey in person?
Yes, the windshield survey requires you to physically drive through your selected community and document your observations. It is a firsthand assessment, not a data-only exercise, and the rubric grades the specificity and relevance of your observations.
About the Author
This guide was prepared by the Gradevia academic team, specialists in nursing and health-sciences coursework support for students at GCU, WGU, Walden, and Liberty University. Our writers hold graduate degrees in nursing, public health, epidemiology, and community health education. We focus on helping busy working nurses understand the method, not just the answer.
Article Update Log
- June 20, 2026 — Initial publication. Complete pillar guide for NRS-425 Health Promotion and Population Health: course overview, all Community Teaching Project parts mapped with links to detailed guides and worked examples, the four-step progression model, concepts covered, success tips, cross-course links to HLT-362V and PHI-413V, and FAQ.
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