Opportunities for capacity building and integration in community based health promotion

Abstract

Introduction: Health promotion is a complex interdisciplinary field and health promotion workforce capacity is influenced by the skills, knowledge and work practices of those doing health promotion work. Place based and settings based approaches to health promotion offer a framework for grounding the complexity of health promotion practice in context. This presentation reports on the baseline capacity of community based health promotion practitioners by exploring the nature and extent of their health promotion practice. This study is one part of an Australian Research Council linkage project, the overall aim of the project was to improve health promotion workforce capacity. Methods: Five focus groups were conducted with participants in roles including: Hospital based nurse practitioner; school based health nurse; community health home care; multidisciplinary community health; and dedicated health promotion practitioners. Results: Thematic analysis of the data illustrated tensions between health promotion roles, resources and capacity. Additionally there were contrasting disciplinary approaches to similar problems and contrasting understandings and use of evidence in practice. Practitioners from different sectors and roles approach health promotion in different ways, even in the context of existing collaborations. Health promotion practitioners have insight into opportunities for service improvement and integration. Conclusion: This research highlights that although contrasting philosophies underpin health promotion practice in the community there is an opportunity and a need to work with practitioners to find innovative ways to collaborate across sectors, and thus improve the translation of health promotion evidence into practice.