Health for all--the development of community health nursing and public health nursing from the perspective of education

Abstract

The purpose of this article was to examine the development of community health nursing and public health nursing in Taiwan from an educational perspective. Key issues addressed include: teaching strategies and scopes of practice used in community health nursing in Taiwan between 1910 and the 1950s; the philosophical foundations for the concepts of "health for all" and "social justice" in Taiwan's community health nursing; the five "P"s of community health nursing teaching and practice (population, prevention, promotion, policy, and partnership); the core competencies and scope of practice of community health nursing proposed by the TWNA Community Health Nursing Committee; and the core competencies and the tiers of classification proposed by the Quad Council of Public Health Nursing Organizations. This article helps to elucidate the inseparable relationship between community health nursing education and practice at both the micro and macro level and examines possible future directions for community health nursing in Taiwan. The author proposes the following recommendations for future community health nursing education development in Taiwan: 1) implement competence classifications appropriate to each nursing education preparation level, 2) promote multidisciplinary cooperation among education, practice, and policy, and 3) promote collaboration and consensus among community health nursing and public health related associations.