The Future of the Population-Focused, Public Health Clinical Nurse Specialist

Association of Community Health Nursing Educators 2020 Research Priorities and Research in Action Model

“…Four articles addressed general C/PHN education and competencies (Canales & Drevdahl, 2014; Clark, Raffray, Hendricks, & Gagnon, 2016; Doutrich & Dotson, 2012; Joyce et al., 2018). Findings revealed C/PHN uses specialized skills and knowledge, but faculty and students may not be as well‐versed in public health competencies as educators would like.…”

“…Four articles addressed general C/PHN education and competencies (Canales & Drevdahl, 2014;Clark, Raffray, Hendricks, & Gagnon, 2016;Doutrich & Dotson, 2012;Joyce et al, 2018). (Hartman, 2018;Johnson, Guillet, Murphy, Horton, & Todd, 2015;Morrison & Catanzaro, 2010;Polivka, Chaudry, & Mac Crawford, 2012;Schaffer et al, 2016).…”

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

“…Similarly, Swider notes that the literature in early educational debates regarding the DNP contained “scant mention” of options for public/population-focused nursing specialty practice, focusing instead on the “practice interests of the majority in nursing, that is, those who provide direct care to individuals and families” ( Swider et al., 2009 ). As a result, the public/population health DNP option has been dwarfed to the point of being invisible in the tremendous growth of DNP programs nationally ( Doutrich & Dotson, 2012 ; Ervin, 2008 ; Levin et al., 2008a ). Not surprisingly, nurses actively seeking APHN DNP programs report difficulty finding them, and assistance in being able to afford the cost of attendance is limited.…”