A critical gap: Advanced practice nurses focused on the public's health

Abstract

Background The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the need for nurse leaders who “embrace the interconnection” between medicine and public health. The inequitable impact of COVID-19 on people of color demonstrates the importance of applying expertise from nursing practice and public health systems to work with communities and other professions on complex health issues. Yet, despite a clear need for improved population health, educational programs designed to produce Advanced Public Health Nurses, with skills to address complex system changes, have become increasingly scarce. Purpose We put forward the perspective that the nation needs more advanced practice nurses prepared for leadership roles focused on the health of whole populations, marginalized communities, and the systems and policies that promote their health. Discussion We argue that opportunities should be expanded for nurses to attain education for these roles through increased investments in the Doctor of Nursing Practice model to prepare nurses for advanced public health specialty practice.

Advancing health equity: Organizational characteristics emphasized by health department nurse lead executives

“…Such a combination of characteristics aligns with PHNs own rich history of community advocacy which may contribute to their capacity to address the SDOH (Bekemeier et al., 2015). It also highlights the critical need for academic nursing programs to ensure students have the skills to be leaders in health equity work (Bekemeier et al., 2021; Storfjell et al., 2018). In considering a need for leaders who emphasize health equity work, the relationships demonstrated here are significant in that they indicate that nurse leaders appear to emphasize this focus and may be important partners in communities for health equity work to thrive.…”

Public health nursing workforce and learning needs: A national sample survey analysis

“…National credentialing and skill-based certification has been a long standing issue for PHNs at all practice levels (Bekemeier et al, 2021).…”

Our Nursing Profession at a Crossroads

“…To position nursing to take a leadership role in popula- tion health, they have called for all newly educated nurses to be grounded in broad population health principles, described in the domains of Community/Public Health Nursing Competencies. 10 In an application of that concept, a collaborative care coordination model was recently piloted by an interdisciplinary team of educators in Virginia. 11 In 2018, at the American Organization for Nursing Leadership (AONL, formerly AONE) Day of Dialogue, thought leaders from across the country sought to identify successful strategies for nurses to take a lead role in the emergence of value-based care.…”