Community Health Nursing Practice Research Articles

Specialty Roles in Community Health Nursing: A National Survey of Educational Needs

This study identified population groups, health conditions, and employment settings considered appropriate for graduate-level community health nursing (CHN) practice and employment, and described the relative importance of each of these areas as assessed by CHN leaders. According to 588 leaders in CHN service and education, (1) the population groups most in need of graduate-prepared CHNs are the elderly, persons of low socioeconomic status, the homeless, adolescents, and the unemployed; and (2) the health conditions most in need of CHN services are AIDS, pregnancy and prenatal problems, low birth weight and infant mortality, stress-related illness, and Alzheimer's and other chronic diseases of the elderly. Among the many employment settings rated as having a great need for CHNs are state and local health departments and home health agencies. The findings provide the direction and justification for developing specialty options within CHN that correspond to these identified and changing needs. This article provides suggestions and possible alternatives for initiating educational change to prepare graduate-level CHNs for these various specialties and for the settings in which the specialties will be applied.

A Continuing Education Model for Community Health Nursing Practice

Although community health nursing standards of practice state that the baccalaureate degree (BSN) is the entry level for practice, the reality is that over 60% of the work-force has less than a bachelor's degree. Furthermore, BSN programs have been criticized for not putting sufficient emphasis on content areas critical for effective entry-level practice. This article presents a continuing education model that could guide agencies in developing programs to correct these deficits, incorporating both initial orientation, ongoing staff development, and formal advanced preparation. The educational background of the nurse determines the clinical activities and degree of supervision required for practice. The non-BSN entering practice should take an intensive course in basic skills identified as essential for practice in the community health setting. Work or professional assignments dictate additional staff development needs. Formal academic preparation at the bachelor's, master's, and doctoral levels is encouraged. Description of the content, course format, and evaluation information regarding the North Carolina course for preparing non-BSN RN's for entry-level community health practice is presented.

The Life Span Perspective: A Developmental Approach to Community Health Nursing

Following the nursing theorists' tradition of using an interdisciplinary approach to community health model building, the concepts of the life span perspective on human development were applied to the practice of community health nursing. As with the perception of individual development from this perspective, communities are viewed as evolving over time, with changes occurring across levels of influence--human, societal, historical, and cultural. These levels are interdependent, and factors from any one or more can affect the growth and functioning of the community. Implied in this interdependence is the ability not only to intervene in a community's development, but to go beyond this and recognize that a community has a degree of control over its own development. To be accurate and thorough in working with communities, the community health nurse who takes a life span perspective must be cognizant of the fact that communities do exist in a continual, multilevel, interactive manner that develops through time. Demonstrating the practical use of this perspective, a model for the assessment phase of the nursing process as applied to community study was developed. A pilot study was performed using this model, and initial results suggest that taking a life span perspective toward community health is both valid and practical, and warrants further scholarly investigation.

Community Health Nursing Practice for Students in an Outreach BSN Program in Rural North Carolina

Community Health Nursing Practice for Students in an Outreach BSN Program in Rural North Carolina

A Description of Community Health Nursing Practice With the Community-Based Elderly

Current Medicare policy does not reimburse for the maintenance and prevention services provided by community health nurses (CHNs) in the management of those community-based elderly who are at risk of institutionalization due to chronic disease and/or functional dependence. Before CHNs can legitimately expand their practice into the area of management of chronic disease in the elderly, they must develop a better understanding of the relationship between the needs of this population and community health nursing practice. This study is one effort to build the desired data base to demonstrate the value of CHN involvement with the community-based elderly.

International Nursing

Some Abstracts in this articleAndrews, M. M. (1986). U.S. nurse consultants in the international marketplaceMcCoMeU, E. A. (1987). Nursing in foreign countries as described in the professional journals of national nurses' associationsAustin, J. K., Champion, V. L., & Tzeng, 0. C. S. (1985). Crosscultural comparison on nursing imageWHO Study Group. (1987). Regulatory mechanisms for nursing training and practice: Meeting primary health care needsAnderson, S. V. (1987). Response of nursing education to primary health care: The training and practice of post basic community health nurses in BotswanaHammond, M. (1985). Teaching primary health care attitudesBraveman, P. A., & Mom, F. (1987). Training physicians for community‐oriented primary care in Latin America: Model Programs in Mexico, Nicaragua, and Costa RiaTolley, M. (1987). Use of the innovative decision‐making process in primary health careRovers, R. (1986). The merging of participatory and analytical approaches to evaluation: Implications for nurse in primary health programsWeill, S. (1985). Occupational health in developing countries and the status of occupational health nursingNew, P. K‐M., & Donahue, J. M. (1986). Strategies for primary health care by the year 2000: A political economic perspectiveQuinley, J. C., & Baker, T. D. (1986). Lobbying for international health: The link between good ideas and funded programs: Bread for the world and the Agency for International Development

Computer-Aided Nursing Diagnosis for Community Health Nurses†

The computer program described in this article was primarily designed to be an aid in the clinical reasoning process. It is intended to simplify the use of nursing diagnoses in the practice of community health nursing. However, in its present form, this program has value not only for the clinician, but also for nursing students being taught structured techniques for assessment. A more comprehensive approach to nursing care and the routine use of nursing diagnoses in providing that care will be encouraged. This article questions the necessity for community health nurses to use computers in their diagnostic role. In answering this question, evidence has been presented that both describes some of the benefits of using computer technology as it relates to nursing diagnoses, and the results of efforts by nurses who have experimented with this technology in trying to improve their practice. One of the advantages of trying to merge a new technology with a relatively new role for community health nurses is the absence of tradition. There is no traditional methodology or approach for integrating the two. And, there is no one to say that it cannot be done. An approach can be tried, changed if it does not work, and tried again. An opportunity to create a new dimension for professional practice is offered. The answer, therefore, to the opening question is, "Yes--community health nurses should be concerned with using computers in their diagnostic role."

Manual for Effective Community Health Nursing Practice

Manual for Effective Community Health Nursing Practice

A descriptive study of the practice of community health nurses with infants at risk for developmental disabilities.

A northeastern United States community health nursing agency gathered data on the scope of their practice with infants at risk for developmental disabilities. A tool was developed by the investigator that incorporated the parameters of assessment, referral, and intervention. These parameters are identified in the literature as essential care for infants at risk for developmental disabilities. Data was gathered by a record audit and tallied to compile frequency distribution. The percentage of "recorded" data for each specific parameter was then tallied.

Social support--meaning, measurement, and relevance to community health nursing practice.

AbstractSocial support is a popular concept in the 1980s. This paper reviews recent advances in the development and measurement of the concept; the research that relates support to a variety of health outcomes and behaviors; the relevance of the concept to the practice of community health nurses.

Manual for Effective Community Health Nursing Practice

Manual for Effective Community Health Nursing Practice

Manual for Effective Community Health Nursing Practice

Manual for Effective Community Health Nursing Practice

A model of community-focused nursing.

AbstractTheoretically, the focus of community health nursing is the community; however, the nature of the practice has not been well documented. The purpose of this study was to develop a community‐focused model by identifying appropriate behaviors and activities for staff‐level community health nurses. A list of suggested behaviors and activities was compiled by means of brainstorming sessions and sent to a sample of community health nursing administrators, educators, and staff nurses in Michigan. Responses were analyzed using nonmetric multidimensional scaling techniques to uncover and define the primary underlying dimensions of perceived community‐focused practice of community health nursing. Three specific regions were identified and labeled: (1) client‐oriented services; (2) aggregate needs identification; and (3) aggregate planning and intervention. These regions (concepts) have been illustrated graphically in a proposed model for community focused nursing entitled the S‐C model. In addition, discrepancies among the three respondent groups were identified.

Community Health Nursing Practice

Community Health Nursing Practice

Bookshelf for the community health nurse specialist.

ALMOST twenty years have elapsed since Dorothy Deming courageously prepared the extensive and scholarly bibliography entitled Public Health Nurse's Bookshelf (A.J.P.H. 41:375-382, April, 1951). Over the next two decades the literature continued to emphasize the work of the nurse prepared in a baccalaureate program for practice in the public health arena. Examples of this approach are Pearl Coulter's The Nurse in the Public Health Program (Putnam, 1954); Ruth Freeman's Public Health Nursing Practice (Saunders, 1950-1957-1963) ; Corcoran and Corrigan's Knowledge for the Practice of Public Health Nursing (Catholic University Press, 1962); Ethel Kallins' Textbook of Public Health Nursing (Mosby, 1967); Leahy and Cobb's Fundamentals of Public Health Nursing (McGraw-Hill, 1966); Stewart and Vincent's Public Health Nursing: A Book of Readings (W. C. Brown, 1968). The decade of the sixties saw a change of emphasis in public health. The focus became that of involvement of the in planning for and implementing a program for health care. The was conceived as including professionals, consumers, and representatives of the public-private sectors who were in a partnership to develop a community of solution for handling problems related to the delivery of health care. Health Is a Community Affair (Harvard University Press, 1966) summarizes this approach. This trend was bound to have an impact on developments in nursing. The reorganization of the American Nurses' Association (ANA) resulted in the establishment of a Division on Community Health Nursing Practice. Public health nurses from ANA and the Public Health Nursing Section of the American Public Health Association have had discussions concerning the qualifications and preparation through a master's degree program of a specialist in health nursing practice. All of this has influenced the development of a specialty area in health nursing in nursing education programs. This bibliography presents the books which should be of value to the nurse in preparing for and practicing in this nursing specialty. It provides the basis for the systematic investigation of the nursing process in providing care for family and groups. It involves the specialist in action for comprehensive health care, but also emphasizes the independent judgment required for appropriate nursing intervention. However, the bibliography does not in-