Advanced public health nursing : a guiding practice model -

Abstract

Public health nursing is facing a great underutilization of its advanced roles to the extent that the future of the specialty is threatened. Underutilization is attributed to the confusion surrounding the advanced public health nursing roles. This project is a qualitative descriptive search aiming at exploring the roles of advanced public health nursing. The search involved an extensive review of the literature and a qualitative inductive content analysis of six milestone documents of public health nursing. Major concepts emerged from the analysis to revolve around the roles of advanced public health nursing. A guiding model of practice was developed using these major concepts. The model of practice represents the cornerstones of advanced public health nursing as well as the roles and the different competencies and attributes related to each role. The ultimate goal of the model is to improve the health and wellness of populations through appropriate implementation of the advanced public health nursing roles.