Public health nursing: Nursing

Often when someone thinks of a nurse, they picture settings like hospitals and clinics. However, nursing care is just as important in other settings like with public health nursing, community-based nursing, and home health nursing.  

Each of these nursing specialties promote health by using primary prevention, which is aimed at minimizing the chance of developing an illness by reducing modifiable risk factors; secondary prevention, which involves screening for an illness in its early stages, before a patient develops signs and symptoms; and tertiary prevention, which is focused on slowing disease progression, preventing complications, and promoting optimal functioning.

Now, the goal of public health nursing involves preventing disease and promoting health at three population levels: the individual and family level, directed at providing care for a patient and their support system; the community level, which encompasses a specific population, such as students living on a college campus or vulnerable populations like patients with developmental disabilities; and the system level, where care is directed at influencing the overarching systems that impact health, like healthcare policy.

Now, the goal of public health nursing involves preventing disease and promoting health at three population levels: the individual and family level, directed at providing care for a patient and their support system; the community level, which encompasses a specific population, such as students living on a college campus or vulnerable populations like patients with developmental disabilities; and the system level, where care is directed at influencing the overarching systems that impact health, like healthcare policy.

These functions help public health nurses focus care on primary prevention of illness within a population. Public health nursing also has roles in secondary prevention, such as providing screenings for tuberculosis, and tertiary prevention, like running a foot care clinic for patients diagnosed with diabetes mellitus. 

Next, community-based nursing is a branch of public health nursing where nurses manage acute and chronic conditions within the community, where individuals live, work, play, and worship.

Like public health nurses, community-based nurses have a multifaceted role that is shaped by the needs of the community. The community-based nurse can determine these needs by conducting a community assessment, like using a windshield survey to make observations by driving or walking around the community. For example, the nurse can determine a community’s access to healthy foods by observing that for every one grocery store, there are four fast-food restaurants, or that the local grocery store isn’t easily accessible using public transportation. The nurse can also assess the community by interviewing community members and stakeholders to identify community needs.