Creating a Brand Image for Public Health Nursing

Abstract

Public health nurses (PHNs) have declined as a proportion of both the nursing and the public health workforces in the past 2 decades. This decline comes as 30 states report public health nursing as the sector most affected in the overall public health shortage. Taken together, these data point to a need for renewed recruitment efforts. However, the current public images of nurses are primarily those of professionals employed in hospital settings. Therefore, this paper describes the development of a marketable image aimed at increasing the visibility and public awareness of PHNs and their work. Such a brand image was seen as a precursor to increasing applications for PHN positions. A multimethod qualitative sequential approach guided the branding endeavor. From the thoughts of public health nursing students, faculty, and practitioners came artists' renditions of four award-winning posters. These posters portray public health nursing-incorporating its image, location of practice, and levels of protection afforded the community. Since their initial unveiling, these posters have been distributed by request throughout the United States and Canada. The overwhelming response serves to underline the previous void of current professional images of public health nursing and the need for brand images to aid with recruitment.

Public Health Nurses in Israel: A Case Study on a Quality Improvement Project of Nurse's Work Life

“…This case study confirms one of the major conclusions of the published literature, namely the sources of job satisfaction (Baldwin et al., ; Curtis & Glacken, ; Graham et al., ; Haugh & Laschinger, ; Keller et al., ). It is clear that job satisfaction is an outgrowth of an organizational structure which concentrates on three key issues—the communications between the ranks of the hierarchy `which the organizational structure encourages/discourages, the physical working environment it provides, and the resources it furnishes workers to meet the demands laid on them.…”

“…Finally, the Baldwin et al. () study concluded that to improve recruitment to the profession public health nursing needed to be ‘re‐branded’ and given a more defined and coherent public visibility.…”

“…The present authors found in the literature for the last 20 years numerous papers on public health nurses' job satisfaction and quality of work life from Canada, the USA, Taiwan, Saudi Arabia and Japan, but none from Europe or Israel. The predominant finding of all these papers was the very close relation between job satisfaction and the variables of organizational structure (Almalki, FitzGerald, & Clark, 2012;Baldwin, Lyons, & Issel, 2011;Best & Thurston, 2006;Campbell, Foweles, & Weber, 2004;Cumbey & Alexander, 1998;Curtis & Glacken, 2014;Graham, Davies, Woodend, Simpson, & Mantha, 2011;Haugh & Laschinger, 1998;Keller, Strohschein, Lia-Hoagberg, & Schaffer, 1998;McMaster University School of Nursing and the Health Services Research Unit, 2009;Yamashita, Takase, Wakabayshi, Kuroda, & Owatari, 2009). The 21st-century studies have reported relatively low levels job satisfaction among public health nurses and emphasize the need for additional research on job satisfaction among public health workforce (Curtis & Glacken, 2014;Graham et al, 2011;Hilliard & Boulton, 2012;Sellers et al, 2015).…”

“…A Japanese investigation confirmed this, adding the variable of occupational security (Yamashita et al, 2009). Finally, the Baldwin et al (2011) study concluded that to improve recruitment to the profession public health nursing needed to be 're-branded' and given a more defined and coherent public visibility.…”

Can brand theory help re‐position the brand image of nursing?

“…Studies examining the nursing brand have largely relied upon qualitative narratives to describe some form of a consistent nursing image (Baldwin, Lyons, & Issel, 2011; Emeghebo, 2012; Morris, 2007). However, sparse studies exist, which clearly identify and quantitatively measure perceptions of the actual vs desired brand image and brand position for the nursing profession.…”