Ready, willing and able? Specialist community public health nurses’ views of their public health role

Abstract

This paper is a report of a research study to explore specialist community public health nurses’ views of their public health role. Three key objectives were set: to identify what their public health role was; to explore what the influences are on that role are; to investigate what they felt the solutions were to enhance this aspect of their role. The study design consisted of a small qualitative study that used three focus groups to collect data from practice teachers from health visiting, occupational health nursing and school nursing. The data was combined for thematic analysis of their responses to the three key topics identified. The results showed that the participants were somewhat knowledgeable about their role as public health nurses; were influenced by lack of resources, poor understanding from others of their role and tensions with managers and the wider team as to the importance of their public health role; and they offered solutions that included role clarity for effective skill mix, a shared vision for practice and debated the role of a specific public health nurse in the team. Recommendations for clear roles and responsibilities, clear protocols for assessing need and identifying priorities and performance management frameworks are offered.