Bringing the Population into Focus: A Natural Development in Community Health Nursing Practice. Part I.

Abstract

An interpretive study conducted in a Midwestern metropolitan area was designed to examine expertise in everyday community health nursing (CHN) practice. Twenty‐five nurses from three practice areas (traditional, nontraditional, and program development) participated in group and individual interviews and field observations, sharing stories of their practice. Transcribed interviews and field observation notes were analyzed as a text. One of the major findings of the study focused on experiences of the nurses as they developed the population aspects of their everyday practice. Part I describes the natural development of a population focus of CHN generalists whose care most often targeted individuals and families. The stories of how their practices evolved and were supported by their institutions provided insights into how nurses develop a broad population‐focused practice perspective. Part II examines the practice of those CHN specialists who nurse their target populations from an intentional perspective. Their population‐focused practice, in which they repeatedly displayed what the research team terms multilingual and multiperspectival skills, was solidly based in their prior individual and family‐focused experience and expertise in program planning and evaluation.

Revealing the Voices of Public Health Nurses by Exploring Their Lived Experience

“…Caring has been foundational to nursing and to public health nursing practice; caring relationships that are grounded in personal integrity, honesty, consistency, and trustworthiness are defined as a cornerstone of public health nursing (Keller et al., ). In order to cause positive health change, a public health nurse needs to form trusting relationships and build partnerships with communities (Diekemper, Smithbattle, & Drake, ,b; Keller et al., ).…”

"Competências da enfermeira na atenção básica: contribuição à construção das funções essenciais de saúde pública"

“…Estudos realizados para identificação das competências de médicos e enfermeiras para o trabalho na atenção primária e na comunidade, têm sido oferecidas por Kenyon et al (1990), Lane e Ross (1994), Nickel et al (1995, Gebbie e Hwang (2000), Diekemper, Smithbattle e Drake (1999a;1999b), , Silva e Tanaka (1999 …”

Competências dos profissionais de saúde no referencial das funções essenciais de saúde pública: contribuição para a construção de projetos pedagógicos na enfermagem

“…Desde então, muitos estudos têm sido realizados nos Estados Unidos, na Inglaterra e na Austrália para identificação das competências na área da saúde. Estes incluem contribuições para o estudo das competências requeridas por médicos e enfermeiros para o trabalho na atenção primária e na comunidade no exterior (13,(23)(24)(25)(26)(27) e no Brasil (20)(21)(22)(23)(24)(25)(26)(27)(28) , sendo que estes últimos tratam somente de competências gerais.…”