Community Health Nursing – What is it and Should you Choose it as a Career
Community health nursing has been around since the 1800’s, but it’s only recently starting to be treated as a distinct specialty, with its own vocabulary and core principles. Confusion sometimes arises among medical providers as to what a community health nurse is, because community health can refer to both a nursing specialty and a care setting.
For example, one nurse might possess formal certification as a Community Health Nurse (CHS) and work in an acute care setting with individuals, while another nurse might have no formal community training but be involved in a program to lower the mortality rate of infants in high-crime populations.To muddy the waters even further, the terms “community health nursing” and “public health nursing” are often used interchangeably.
Important Concepts in Community Health
Regardless of whether you call it community health or public health, and regardless of the setting, certain concepts in community health nursing are universal to the practice. All skilled nurses who work in community health settings or who are certified in community health nursing must have a solid ground in epidemiology, needs assessment, and program planning/evaluation.
Community health nursing requires an understanding of epidemiology, especially for nurses taking part in research programs.Epidemiology is the study of the causes, effects and distribution of health, disease and injuries across populations. Epidemiological research can provide community health nurses with the data on which to base their decisions as they provide health care to populations.
In addition, community health nurses assess the needs of a community on a regular basis. They examine what the population needs on all levels in order to maintain or improve health.Finally, program planning and evaluation are important parts of community health nursing. Nurses identify the situation that needs to be improved, design a program to initiate the improvement, and evaluate the program at its conclusion or while it is ongoing.
Looking Towards the Future
Community health nursing has always been characterized by a diverse range of settings: nurses work in hospitals, homes, schools, clinics and many other places. In the future, community health nursing can be expected to move into even more diverse settings and address more specific situations.
For example, substance abuse centers, homeless shelters and workplaces are starting to look to community health nurses to provide care on a larger scale than in previous years. Advanced telemedicine and remote care strategies will enable nurses to provide careto populations without having to physically travel to the setting. Because community health nursing emphasizes client responsibility and self-care, chronic disease management may start to become more overtly handled within the realm of community health nursing practice. Community health nursing is also expected to better address the needs of the aging population in coming years.
Programs aimed at the general population often ignore the specific needs of seniors, as was demonstrated in a 1998 study showing that less than 30% of adults over 75 had received formal diabetes training, as opposed to 50% of adults aged 18 to 30. As community health nursing becomes better understood by the nursing workforce, other care providers, educators, and patients, its applications will become more varied and effective.
Community health nursing, despite the confusion the term often produces, isa time-tested approach to improving the health of populations. As confusion makesway for clarity, nursing practice as a whole can benefit from the principles of community health nursing.
