Recent Australian health care reform in all jurisdictions of government, have attempted to address the need to curtail the burden of chronic disease by adopting and or referring to a primary health care (PHC) approach. In this way, community health nurses are challenged to demonstrate their understanding and capacity to practice according to primary health care principles. Evaluated in this paper is the impact a community health nursing curriculum adaptation of the Public Health Intervention Model (PHIM) has had on students’ understanding and application of PHC to community nursing practice. A thematic analysis was utilized to review student assessment tasks. Generated themes support the PHIM adaptation, as a means to facilitate students' cognitive learning of community nursing practice interventions ‘greater than treating the wound’, and thus this model is particularly pertinent to future Bachelor of Nursing curriculum development and Australian Community Health Nursing.