Validating the 'intervention wheel' in the context of Irish public health nursing.

Abstract

Illuminating the full range of nursing actions is a challenge for nurses globally; the invisibility of nursing and of public health nursing in particular is well documented. Visibility can be enhanced by identifying core functions of nursing and matching corresponding levels of interventions and outcomes. This is a priority for the contemporary Irish public health nursing (PHN) service. In the United States, public health nurses have developed an 'Intervention Wheel' naming public health interventions at community, systems and individual/family levels. This aimed to make visible the core functions of PHN practice. The values and beliefs underpinning the Intervention Wheel have been shown to capture the essence of public health nursing within the European context. In total, US nurses described 17 Wheel interventions by recording stories from practice. Owing to concern that the public health aspect of their role was not only invisible but was at risk of erosion, Irish PHNs decided to replicate this storytelling approach to provide evidence for and authenticate the 17 interventions on the Intervention Wheel from their day-to-day public health practice.