Focus on community: directions for nursing knowledge development

Abstract

Nurses are challenged to advance the theoretical foundations of community practice. This paper offers ideas on what has been done and what needs to be done to meet this challenge. Within a community health nursing perspective, the paper defines community, proposes an integrated knowledge development framework that focuses on community, analyses contemporary theoretical and philosophical foundations of community in nursing, considers three world-views in which nursing can be framed, and examines parameters for knowledge development for the future.

Take-A-Village (TAV): A Metaphorical Model for Health Promotion

“…The theoretical diversity of the TAV model is a strength of the model. This diversity is comparable to the theoretical basis of community health nursing knowledge, practice, and research identified by the Association of Community Health Nursing Educators in 1995 (Kulbok et al, 1999). The origin of the TAV model should not be regarded as an internal constraining factor for using the model in practices that involve other ethnic groups.…”

“…Eisner (1991) stated that metaphorical precision is the central vehicle for revealing the qualitative aspects of life. Three metaphors used to conceptualize community and the philosophical basis of community health nursing were the following: machine, biological entity, and melody (Kulbok, Gates, Vicenzi, & Schultz, 1999). As a machine, the community has discrete parts that interact according to certain laws or principles.…”

“…Such investigations will be instrumental for establishing the validity of the TAV model for use in other ethnic groups. Evidence suggests that theoretical thinking in community health nursing practice has not reached maturity because intervention and research is at an emergent stage, that is, at the level of the individual person and not yet at the group or community level (Kulbok et al, 1999). Findings from future research on the TAV model will inform us better about important concepts in building transcultural nursing knowledge and theories specific for groups and communities.…”

Being and doing politics: an outdated model or 21st century reality?

“…Kulbok et al. (1999) consider that there must be a focus on the community in addition to the individual as client within nursing models and theories in order to address wider forms of health inequality.…”

Nursing Science and Public Health

“…The discipline of nursing is a distinct branch of knowledge developed by a community of scholars with a shared view of the world, who use this perspective to identify phenomena specific to nursing and to guide inquiry into nursing phenomena (Kulbok, Gates, Vicenzi, & Schultz, 1999). Within the discipline of nursing, the public health nursing (PHN) specialty is made up of scholar educators, practitioners, and researchers, who share common concerns about the health conditions of communities and populations, and who acknowledge common approaches to resolving them (Ervin, 2007;Josten, Clarke, Ostwald, Stoskopf, & Shannon, 1995).…”