Community Health Nursing Practice

Community health nursing is a branch of nursing focused on preventative care and managing acute and chronic conditions within that community, which is a group of people who live in the same area or share certain values or characteristics.

Community health nursing can include public health, home health, and primary care nursing. Now, as a community health nurse, you’ll first need to complete a community assessment to better understand the community’s environment, including physical locale, the social systems, and the people who live and work in the community.

You can assess the physical locale by driving around the community and conducting a “windshield” survey, or by walking around the community and completing a walking survey.

Your survey can determine a community’s access to resources such as recreation, shopping, and opportunities for socialization.

During your survey, you may notice that there are several prominent houses of worship in the community, that the neighborhoods are composed of both single-family houses as well as multifamily dwellings, or the presence of well-maintained parks with open space where children can safely play.

You may also notice if there are vacant lots, if there’s a direct bus route to the local grocery store, and the number of fast-food restaurants that are within walking distance of neighborhoods.

Your assessment will also include the community's social systems, which you can accomplish by visiting specific sites, like schools and health care facilities, and by interviewing community members.

You can also review data from the local health department to gather health and demographic information and use this information to identify community strengths as well as potential problems.

For example, you might notice that there’s been a decrease in local teen pregnancy, but also an increase in sexually transmitted infections, or STIs, in the last year.

Then, as you assess the people in the community, be sure to note the social determinants of health that affect them, including the types of job opportunities available within the community, the unemployment rate, home ownership versus rental status, and the average level of educational attainment.

You’ll also identify high-priority populations, which are those who are exposed to increased risk, like people in the community who are unhoused, those who have disabilities, or those who have experienced family disruptions due to violence or incarceration.

After completing a community assessment, you’ll use multiple strategies to meet the health care needs of the community. You’ll engage in preventative care activities, which can include completing screenings such as blood pressure checks at a local health fair or teaching a safe driving class to adolescents.

You’ll also provide care to patients with existing illnesses; for example, you may provide ostomy care to a patient who recently underwent a bowel resection.

Other strategies you’ll use as a community health nurse include coordinating resources to provide rehabilitation care for a patient after a stroke; participating in policy and program development, like instituting a mobile vaccination clinic; and conducting research to inform evidence-based care.

Alright, as a quick recap... Community health nursing is a branch of nursing focused on preventative care and managing acute and chronic conditions within that community and can include public health, home health, and primary care nursing.

As a community health nurse, you’ll complete a community assessment to better understand the community’s environment, including physical locale, the social systems, and the people who live and work in the community.

Then, you’ll use multiple strategies to meet the health care needs of the community, including providing preventative care, direct illness care, care coordination, program development,