How Much Public Health in Public Health Nursing Practice?

Abstract

Public health nursing (PHN) practice is defined by an emphasis on population health issues rather than individually focused clinical interventions, but the actual scope and focus of PHN practice have not been well documented. The purpose of this survey was to investigate the practice activities, priorities, and education of public health nurses in California. Public health nurses in five counties were surveyed about interventions targeted at individual-family, community, and system levels. Summary scales (range: 1-4) were created to measure self-rated PHN activity, importance, and education at each level. Staff were most likely to perform individual-family level interventions (mean score, m=2.55), followed by community (m=1.86) and system-level interventions (m=1.46). Managers rated individual-family level interventions as most important (m=2.91) and community-level interventions (m=2.42) as more important than those at the system level (m=1.99). Individually focused case management was the most frequently performed and highly valued intervention. Staff and manager-directors deemed individual-family interventions as the area in which public health nurses were best educated, followed by community and then system interventions. Results indicate that the population health focus of public health nursing is not reflected in the practice activities, management priorities, or educational preparation of public health nurses.

Graduates from dual qualification courses, registered nurse and health visitor: A career history study

“…In many countries the role of public health nurse is one that encompasses both care of the sick, chronically ill and dying within the home and also the promotion of the health of the community, often particularly focused mothers and children. These roles may be known as public health nurses, for example in Eire (Nic Philibin et al 2010) or they may have other titles derived from a history of district or visiting nurses, for example some states of the United States of America (Grumbach et al 2004). In other countries, for example New Zealand (Royal New Zealand Plunket Society inc 2011) and Hong Kong (Shui 1998), these functions are separated into two different nursing roles and services.…”

A Study of Community Healthcare Competency Among Public Health Nurses

“…The study did find PHN self-assessment capacity strongest in "community healthcare service" and "individual healthcare service". Following the model introduced by Keller et al (1998) and used by Grumbach, Miller, Mertz, and Finocchio (2004) to conduct PHNs self-assessment on competency, PHN competency was strongest at the individual/family level. Competency at the community level was between the individual/family level and system level, which was weakest.…”

“…Results indicated that those with higher education levels, especially university degrees, had better caring competency. Grumbach et al (2004) stated that PHNs with university or higher degree were more likely to work at the community and systematic levels. Overall, a higher level of education correlated with better comprehensive care competency.…”

Exploring Perceived Enablers and Barriers to Social Marketing Use in Public Health Nursing

“…The decision to sample public health managers was informed by recent research in which PHNs themselves identified managerial support as a significant influencing factor to PHN practice (Chambers et al, 1994;Grumbach et al, 2004;Schoenfeld & MacDonald, 2002). In these studies, factors affecting PHN practice as a whole were examined.…”

“…The decision to sample PHNs at the managerial level resulted from previous research which identified the level of managerial support as a significant contributor to PHNs' use of social marketing (Chambers et al, 1994;Grumbach et al, 2004;Schoenfeld & MacDonald, 2002). Within the health regions studied, public health managers are also intermediaries between frontline PHNs and the administrative level responsible for policy development and budgetary planning.…”