Public health nursing is a specialized nursing combining both nursing and public health principles with the primary focus of improving the health of the whole community rather than just an individual. Its documented history started in the 1800s and has evolved from home visiting to the varied settings that public health nurses find themselves working in as members of public health teams in clinics, schools, workplaces and government health departments.Public health nursing has been a critical component of the country’s health care system, uplifting of the health status of Malaysians and playing a dominant role in the fight against communicable diseases, and is set to face the challenges of the 21st century with public health nurses practising to the full capacity of their training in a restructured Malaysian health system – 1Care for 1Malaysia. The health sector reform allows for optimisation of scarce health care resources to deliver expansion of quality services based on needs, appropriateness, equity &allocative efficiency. The proposed model will be better than the current system, preserving the strengths of the current system but able to respond to increasing population health needs and expectations. There will be increased autonomy for healthcare providers with incentives in place for greater performance. Some of the implications of reform include allowing public- private integration, a slimmer Ministry of Health with a stronger governance role, enhancing the gatekeeping role of the primary care providers and the autonomous management of the public healthcare providers. In this restructured health system, the roles of the public health nurses are no less important than in the current one. In fact, with the increasing emphasis placed on prevention and primary care as the hub of community care with nurses as part of the primary care team delivering continuous comprehensive person-centered care,public health nurses in the future will be able to meet the challenge of refocusing on the true mission of public health: to look at the health problems of a community as a whole and work with the community in alleviating those problems by applying the nursing process to improve health, not just as providers of personal care only.
Public Health Nursing

PURPOSE: The aim of the study was to identify nursing informatics competencies of nurses working for public health centers in Chungcheongnam-do. METHODS: Data were collected from June 10 to July 25, 2012 using the Nursing Informatics Competencies Questionnaire (NICQ). Data were analyzed by descriptive statistics, t-test, chi2-test, ANOVA and Pearson's correlation coefficient. RESULTS: Nursing informatics competencies of the subjects showed a mean score of 3.3+/-1.0 out of 5. As for scores of individual categories, the score for computer skills competencies was 3.3+/-1.0, informatics knowledge competencies 3.4+/-0.9, and informatics skills competencies 3.0+/-0.9. Nursing informatics competencies were positively correlated with the subjects' ages (r=.65, p<.001), computer usage hours (r=.23, p = .015), levels of demand for informatics knowledge (r=.51, p<.001), and informatics skills education (r=.78, p<.001). CONCLUSION: Nursing informatics is required to be connected with job training or in-service education on account of its growing necessity for public health nurses. It is also essential to develop programs for strengthening informatics competencies reflecting sub-categories of educational needs.
Informatics ; Nursing Informatics ; Public Health ; Public Health Nursing ; Surveys and Questionnaires

This study was designed to analyze the nursing curricula in graduate programs and suggest the direction of future nursing curricula. Thirty-two nursing curricula for a master's degree and fifteen curricula for a doctoral degree from general graduate programs, fifteen nursing curricula for a master's degree from fifteen educational graduate programs, eight nursing curricula for master degree from eight out of twelve public health graduate programs, three nursing curricula for a master's degree from three administrative graduate programs, and four nursing curricula for a master's degree from four clinical nursing graduate programs, were analyzed. Consequently, It was hard to find a clear difference between the educational goals and objectives, the subjects open in nursing curricula for a master's degree and those for a doctoral degree of graduate programs. The educational graduate programs, public health graduate programs, administrative graduate programs, and clinical nursing graduate programs, each program showed ittle diffrent in each educational goal and objective. However, because the various kinds of subjects open in each program were not based on the core curricula, the quality of the nursing curricula need to be evaluated and develope the curricula to difference are the goal and objective. Accordingly, future studies need to be focused on developing core nursing curricula reflecting the characteristics of each graduate program.
Curriculum* ; Korea* ; Nursing* ; Public Health

This study provides a closer look to the possibility of having advanced practice in public health nursing by analyzing the power relations between nursing practice and social structures. Representatives from the public health sector, national authorities, and the private sector were invited in a round table discussion. Transcriptions were coded and later on categorized and analyzed drawing upon the concepts of Foucault. Foucauldian analysis hands an important insight on how social structures and institutions can steer the creation of an advanced practice in public health nursing in the Philippines. Various social institutions view the relevance of a master's prepared nurse according to their societal roles and functions. Requisite competencies of a master's prepared nurse in public health nursing include fulfilling the role of a clinician, leader and manager, supervisor, and a researcher. PRBON, CHED, DOH, and nursing schools need to work together to define the knowledge of an advanced practice in public health nursing, to implement appropriate surveillance mechanisms, and to establish a compliant practice.

PURPOSE: It is extremely difficult to apply the model learned in basic education for public health nurses (PHNs) to conduct community health assessments. The purpose of this study was to clarify the process by which community health needs can be structured through PHNs' daily practice.METHODS: Semistructured interviews were conducted in 29 PHNs, and continuous comparative analysis using a qualitative study was performed with a modified grounded theory approach.RESULTS: The participants “used their five senses to understand the relationship between the health and life of people” and “considered those who do not attend” by “learning from stakeholders.” To verify such subjective feelings sourced from vague phenomena within the communities, subjective phenomena were converted into qualitative data.CONCLUSION: The application of the findings to organizational continuous education systems may not only help appropriately improve community health assessment methods but can also help improve the evaluation of daily practice and contribute to professional human-resource development.
Community Health Nursing ; Education ; Grounded Theory ; Nurses, Public Health ; Public Health Nursing ; Public Health

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to describe public health services for the aged in public health centers from the perspective of public health nurses. METHODS: The interview data were collected from 11 public health nurses and analyzed by using Colazzi's (1978) descriptive phenomenology. The procedural steps was that described the phenomenon of interest, collected participants' descriptions of the phenomenon, extracted the meaning of significant statement, organized the meanings into theme clusters, wrote exhaustive descriptions and then incorporated data into an exhaustive description. RESULTS: The results included 291 re-statements, 49 constructed meanings, 27 themes, 12 theme clusters, and 5 categories were deduced. The five categories were 'perception of obstacles for elderly health system', 'sense of burden in services of health', 'planning about diverse elderly health services', 'elderly clients-focused performance', and 'solidify community ground of elderly health services'. Despite obstacles, participants tried to diverse health services for elderly. CONCLUSION: This study has described public health nurses' experiences about public health services for the aged. These findings have important implication for the practice of public health services for the aged and must be considered to develop program for planning and practice of public health nurses for the aged.
Aged ; Health Services ; Humans ; Public Health ; Public Health Nursing

Achievement of Universal Health Care (UHC) in the Philippines requires capable health workers who can navigate changes and lead in the local implementation of health system reforms. Public health nurses are in a strategic position to lead in UHC implementation as they constitute the largest cadre of health workers in the public health setting, and core concepts of UHC intersect with principles of public health nursing practice. This paper aims to describe the development and implementation of a leadership training program for public health nurses in the Philippines, in response to UHC. Document reviews of training reports and evaluations, including course site data analytics, and evaluation of the training program were done for the four cohorts of the course. The University of the Philippines Manila College of Nursing, with support from the Department of Health, responded to the increased demand of the Philippine health system for public health nurses with strong foundations and advanced skills by designing and offering a leadership development course specific to PHNs. From November 2019 to March 2022, a total of 183 participants from 17 regions completed the training. With the COVID-19 pandemic and dynamic changes in governance, the experiences of the project highlighted the need for flexibility in delivering the training program, updating module contents according to the latest developments, and improving course duration and evaluation. Barriers to course engagement and completion must be addressed for PHNs, their workplaces, clients, and the health system to benefit the most from the training.
Nurses, Public Health ; Universal Health Care ; Nursing

The purpose of this study was to describe decision making model of 180 public health nurses in Korea and their knowledge structure for decision making. The differences of decision making models by nurse's knowledge structure were also tested. Research concepts were measured using the instrument based on systemic and interpretive decision making approaches that were developed by Lauri & Salantera (1995). The results were as follows. 1. The public health nurses turned to, most commonly, a mixed practical-theoretical knowledge structure (45.9%), followed by practical knowledge (32%) and theoretical knowledge (22.1%). 2. The six different decision making models were identified. These were named for decision making theories and nursing process. These were client-oriented decision making, rule-oriented systemic decision making, wholistic and intuitive decision making, decision making depending on subjective view and experience, systemic decision making for defining problems, and hypotheticodeductive decision making for defining problems. 3. The public nurses who had practical and practical-theoretical knowledge structure and community health practitioner (CHP) retold that decision making depends on subjective view and experience. Also the public health nurses who had 5~19 years clinical experience represented hypothetico-deductive decision making for defining problems.
Decision Making* ; Korea ; Nurses, Public Health ; Nursing Process ; Public Health*

PURPOSE: This study was to describe and develop public health nursing. METHODS: Data were collected from 19 nurses sampled from 5 public health centers. The grounded theory of Strauss and Corbin (1990) was applied. RESULTS: As a result, 48 concepts, 23 subcategories, and 11 categories were deduced from open coding. In axial coding, casual conditions 'facing difficulties of practical administration' and 'attaching importance to health support for residents' and context condition 'assessing of residents' service needs' impacted phenomenon 'searching for efficient performing methods.' Intervening conditions 'forming of support system' and 'working with positive,' and action-interaction conditions 'improving of resident's health and medical accessibility' and 'striving for self-development' lead to consequences 'carried out promptly for field-based problem solving,' 'mastered of successful program planning methods' and 'solving the issues with existing style.' The periods of process were divided into 4 stages, confirming program-contents, probing program-method, developing program-strategies, and applying program-competencies. The core category, 'strengthening of practical-planning work competencies' incorporated the relationship between and among all categories and explained the process. CONCLUSION: This study described public health nurses' performance in Korea. These findings have important implications for the practice and must be considered to develop competencies for planning and practice of public health.
Clinical Coding ; Korea ; Public Health Nursing ; Public Health*

PURPOSE: The purpose of study is to develop a home nursing care project model suitable for Korea's heath care system and policy directions for expansion and establishment of home nursing care. METHOD: The first, status of home nursing care program in medical institution and public health center was evaluated respectively in view of structure, process and performance. And then, issues of the program were analyzed in view of accessibility, safety, and sufficient supply. The second, demand projection of home nursing care according to income level and technical level of service that is needed to the subject was tried. In addition, the level of supply for home nursing care at present was estimated. The third, home nursing care program in advanced countries (Japan and U.S.A.) was examined. RESULT AND CONCLUSION: Community-based home nursing care program is developed into public-operation model and private-operation model from above the sub-subject result. Functional network for referral system among related institutions is built up to meet various needs, regardless of accessibility to distance and economy. And prior settlements and policy directions for expansion and establishment of home nursing care are suggested.
Home Nursing* ; Public Health ; Referral and Consultation