Public health nurses' activities at a time of specialization in nursing-A national study

The effect of counseling services provided in rehabilitation centers on parents' caregiving burden and quality of life

BackgroundThe presence of person with disabilities may have a negative impact on the quality of life and caregiving responsibilities of the parent. Staff at rehabilitation centers face a variety of stressors and workloads. It is essential to implement initiatives that alleviate the caregiving burden and enhance the quality of life for parents.ObjectiveThe study aimed to examine the effect of health promotion model based counseling services on caregiving burden and quality of life in parents of person with disabilities.MethodsThis randomized control study was conducted on 110 parents in 6 Rehabilitation Centers. Parents in the experimental group were counseled, and control group were not. Caregiving burden levels were evaluated using the Zarit Caregiver Burden Scale and quality of life levels evaluated at the beginning and end of the study using the Quality of Life Scale.ResultsA statistically significant difference was found in the large effect size between the ZCBS and SF-36 pre-test and post-test mean scores of the experimental group. The health promotion model based counseling service was effective in increasing parents' quality of life and reducing caregiving burden.ConclusionWe described a high caregiving burden and low quality of life levels in parents of person with disabilities. Counseling was effective to reduce caregiving burden and increase quality of life. Education and counseling are the primary roles of nurses. An appropriate health professional, especially a public health nurse, be present during the counseling process, providing ongoing services to parents of person with disabilities.

Nursing interventions in a newly established community health nursing system: A cross sectional survey

Background

Community health nursing was introduced in Austria in 2022. Information about nurses' activities, their alignment with established public health frameworks, and their relationship to existing care services is crucial for understanding the role's implementation and potential impact.

Objective

This study examines the activities of the first cohort of Austrian Community Health Nurses, focusing on their alignment with the Public Health Intervention Wheel and the Nursing Intervention Classification. An important aspect comes from the question, whether these new services complement or substitute existing direct care services. In this process, we also address heterogeneity across urbanization levels.

Design

Cross-sectional survey.

Settings

An online survey (April to June 2023) among Community Health Nurses captured their perception of activity frequencies based on the Public Health Intervention Wheel and Nursing Intervention Classification.

Participants

130 nurses (59 %, N = 220) answered >6 (out of 33) questions, 98 nurses (45 %, N = 220) provided all required information.

Methods

The analysis used descriptive statistics, statistical tests, and hierarchical cluster analysis, employing Excel®, Stata® and R.

Results

Austrian Community Health Nurses implement many principles of the Public Health Intervention Wheel, with a focus on counselling, consultation, and health teaching. Direct care interventions (according the Nursing Intervention Classification) are rarely performed. Findings indicate that community health nurses complement rather than substitute existing direct care and home nursing services. However, unlike international practices, activities are primarily at the individual level, with limited engagement at community and systems levels.

Conclusions

Community health nursing in Austria demonstrates a public health focus and therefore complements existing care services. However, it focuses primarily at the individual level, which differs from international norms where activities span individual, community, and systems levels.

Tweetable abstract

First Austrian Community Health Nurses implement public health intervention principles mainly on individual level.

Prestige of disciplines within the field of nursing: a cross-sectional study

BACKGROUND

Considering the global shortage of nurses, leaders in the field must understand the strengths and weaknesses of various nursing specialties in order to retain professionals within the field. Occupational prestige reflects the perceived contribution of an occupation 'to society', and measures its desirability, benefit and values. Understanding how experienced nurses view the prestige of nursing specialties may help to explain why some specialties are more desirable than others. We conducted a cross-sectional study to examine the prestige of nursing specialties among nurses taking post-graduate in-training courses.

METHODS

The study questionnaire examined nurses' perceived prestige of nine nursing specialties, the perceived extent of autonomy and authority, the unique knowledge and clinical skills required for each specialty, and participants' demographic and professional characteristics.

RESULTS

A total of 101 nurses (90% females, mean age 35.4 ± 9.39 years) completed the questionnaire. Intensive care (4.67 ± 0.59) and neonatal intensive care (4.57 ± 0.74) were perceived as having the highest prestige, whereas physical activity consultation (2.67 ± 0.98) and sleep consultation (2.71 ± 0.92) were perceived as having the lowest prestige. These specialties were also perceived as requiring the most and least unique knowledge and clinical skills, respectively. In contrast, authority and autonomy were ranked highest in breastfeeding consultation (4.50 ± 0.81), followed by intensive care (4.10 ± 0.87), while congestive heart failure received the lowest score (3.48 ± 0.84). Principal component analysis showed that higher prestige is attributed to acute care specialties, while chronic care specialties or ones involving consultation have lower prestige.

CONCLUSIONS

Nursing specialties with lower scores should be rebranded to encourage nurses to enter these fields.

Nursing activities for health promotion in palliative home care: an integrative review

Palliative care in community contexts is undergoing significant change as a result of public policy and new models of care, which link health promotion principles with palliative care practices. These models support the creation of partnerships between formal care structures and the communities in which care is provided. Given the central role of nurses in the institutional delivery of palliative care, particularly in the home, it is important to provide a systematic description of the activities of nurses that fall within the principles of health promotion. The objective was to describe the diverse range of nursing activities for health promotion that are provided in the palliative home care setting. This is an integrative review. Fifty-five studies listed in the MEDLINE, CINAHL and EMBASE databases, and published between 1999 and December 2022, were identified. Data analysis and presentation of the results were guided by Kellehear's Health-Promoting Palliative Care (HPPC) model. Six themes were identified to describe nursing activities for health promotion in the context of palliative home care: creating a meaningful relationship, supplying medical information, promoting self-care throughout the trajectory, providing emotional support, involving professional or community services and supporting change. The findings point to nurses focusing more on the individual context and on direct care. The relationship with communities in which they work remains unidirectional. However, some HPPC principles are relevant to nursing activities through the contextualization of nurses' actions and their moral responsibility to work towards the respect of patient's values. Being poorly described, how nurses can truly engage their practice towards health-promoting principles, such as the enhancement of support and control over their lives for people living with serious illness, still requires further empirical research.

Hypothetical model for on-the-job training through case conferences of public health nurses

Public health nurses (PHNs) face difficulties supporting vulnerable individuals and families. On-the-job training (OJT) is essential for improving nurses' competencies. However, PHN managers lack the knowledge to systematically implement OJT. The aim of this study was to develop a hypothetical model to systematically promote OJT for PHNs through case conferences (CC). Literature review, based on an integrative approach, has three stages: (1) theoretical framework development, (2) literature review, and (3) modeling. Literature review from five databases (MEDLINE, CINAHL, PsycInfo, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, Japan Medical Abstract Society) was conducted to identify the OJT process, its outcomes, and the conditions associated with OJT according to the theoretical framework. Based on 18 articles, this model progressed from "OJT process through CC," comprising the CC design, implementation, and evaluation to OJT produced "outcomes through CC." Outcomes included staff perception and behavior changes, improvements in client's condition, and staff turnover reductions. The OJT model involved "conditions for implementing CC as OJT" and "individual and organizational conditions." Future research should incorporate the social, political, and historical contexts of specific practice situations into the hypothetical model to help refine the model to be used in practice.

The Development of Education of Public Health Nurses for Applying Genomics in Preventive Health Care

Genetics and genomics have become one of the most important development areas in healthcare. For this reason, it is essential that nursing professionals take their role to offer their skills in implementing genomics in health promotion. The education of public health nurses is taking vital steps in training the health promoters who are able to take the genome-based knowledge into account in precision healthcare. Tampere University of Applied Sciences managed to integrate genomics into the studies of public health nursing. This article describes the process of development and lays emphasis on the importance of genomic education of public health nurses.

Norwegian public health nurses' competence areas

OBJECTIVE

To explore the competence areas of public health nurses in Norway.

DESIGN

A qualitative and comparative design was employed.

SAMPLE

A purposive sample of 41 public health nurses participated.

MEASUREMENTS

Data were gathered from focus groups and individual interviews. The interviews centered around an open question about public health nurses' knowledge. They also discussed 10 proposed competence areas for public health nursing, developed from the literature. A qualitative content analysis was conducted on the interview transcripts, followed by a synthesis of the data from the interviews and earlier developed competencies. The 10 competence areas for Norwegian public health nursing were then refined. Finally, we compared the affirmed competence areas with earlier developed cornerstones and the new educational guidelines.

RESULTS

The interviews revealed 10 competence areas. These 10 competence areas were synthesized with the 10 proposed competencies from literature. Ten affirmed competence areas, which mostly corresponded with the competences from literature, were developed. The affirmed competencies were supported by the previously developed cornerstones and new educational guidelines.

CONCLUSIONS

The affirmed competencies will help promote and explain the content and focus of PHNs' work in Norway and may have implications for education and international research.

Mixed-method analysis of the quad council competencies for public health nurses

OBJECTIVE

Evaluate the knowledge, skills, and attitudes (KSA) of public health nurses (PHNs) related to the eight Domains of the 2011 Quad Council Competencies for Public Health Nurses (QCC-PHN). This manuscript is Part 2 of an exploratory study published in the Public Health Nursing journal on PHNs' knowledge, skills, attitudes, and application of the Quad Council Competencies (Harmon et al., 2020).

DESIGN

In this mixed-method descriptive research study, the multisite team conducted an online survey among a convenience sample of 296 PHNs to determine differences in KSA for each of the eight QCC-PHN Domains.

MEASUREMENTS

Analysis of variance (ANOVA) testing revealed differences in KSA for the QCC-PHN, Domains. Post-hoc tests and qualitative thematic analysis of PHNs open-ended comments were used to provide additional data.

RESULTS

ANOVA results showed significant differences in knowledge and skills in all Domains and a significant difference in attitude in only one domain, Domain 7. Post-hoc test results showed significant differences in KSA between position titles for most Domains.

CONCLUSIONS

Recommendations include using the QCC-PHN to standardize the professional and diverse roles of the PHN workforce.

A enfermagem de saúde pública e as políticas públicas de saúde: um estudo de caso

Resumo Objetivos caracterizar as intervenções do enfermeiro especialista de saúde comunitária e de saúde pública de um Agrupamento de Centros de Saúde; identificar os principais fatores facilitadores para o desempenho das competências, e a contribuição para as políticas públicas de saúde. Método estudo de caso, com enfermeiros da especialidade em enfermagem de saúde comunitária e de saúde pública. Coleta de dados por meio de entrevista, no período de outubro a dezembro de 2019. A análise foi guiada por duas estratégias: partir das proposições teoréticas e trabalhar os dados emergentes; e duas técnicas: combinar padrões, “pattern matching” e construir explicações, “explanation building”. Resultados a partir da matriz construída, surgiram dez proposições teoréticas, dez evidências emergentes, cinco padrões e cinco hipóteses explicativas. Sobressaem intervenções de vigilância epidemiológica, planeamento e gestão de projetos. A formação pessoal e a comunicação destacam-se como fatores facilitadores. Conclusão e implicações para a prática a intervenção do enfermeiro dessa especialidade apresenta uma dimensão centrada no planeamento e gestão de projetos, identifica e reflete os fatores facilitadores do desempenho das suas competências, enquanto aplicador de políticas públicas de saúde.

Being a real nurse: A secondary qualitative analysis of how public health nurses rework their work identities

Many Western nations are emphasizing the importance of population health across health care delivery organizations and education systems. Despite significant momentum to integrate population health into nursing practice, a parallel effort to examine how these efforts impact practicing nurses' views of their professional role and work identity has not occurred. This secondary qualitative analysis, employing an abductive approach, explored processes public health nurses use in creating and maintaining their work identity through three organizing themes: narrative self-identity, mandated identity, and identity as struggle. The analysis was based on interview data collected from 30 US public health nurses residing in 17 states. 'Being a real nurse' describes public health nurses' efforts to balance a contradictory work identity where at times they are expected to focus on populations and at other times, on individuals. The identity work revealed through this study should be further explicated and specific strategies developed for stabilizing a work identity for public health nurses, as well as for any nurse charged with a population health role.

Perceived trust in the health system among mothers and nurses and its relationship to the issue of vaccinations among the Arab population of Israel: A qualitative research study

The literature indicates that trust plays an important role in people's decision-making with respect to vaccinations. This research seeks to examine the impact of trust on the high response rate to vaccinations among the minority Arab population living in Israel. The research employs the qualitative phenomenological research method, using personal interviews to identify and analyze perceived trust among mothers of young children and teenagers (n = 70) and among nurses (n = 20) in the Arab population in the context of vaccinations and the high response rate to vaccinations among this population. The research findings point to differing levels of trust in the medical system. The participants placed the highest trust in the nurses working in the Tipat Halav Family Health Centers run by the Ministry of Health. These nurses are the main communicators of information about childhood vaccinations in Israel. Moreover, the interviewees saw vaccinations as an example of the state offering equal and optimal services to the Arab minority population. In addition, the interviewees consider the explanatory materials to be limited, superficial and not culturally appropriate. These positive attitudes toward vaccinations alongside reports that no importance is attributed to the explanatory materials due to their low quality may cause the population to accept vaccination recommendations as they are and to delegate responsibility and authority to the state.

Organizational commitment and quality of life at work among public health nurses in Israel

OBJECTIVE

To test the relationship between job satisfaction, professional self-image, work environment, organizational commitment (OC), and quality of life at work (QoLW) among public health nurses in Israel. To determine which variables can predict OC and QoLW among public health nurses.

DESIGN AND SAMPLE

One hundred and thirty-two public health nurses participated in this cross-sectional study with a structured self-administered questionnaire that examined OC, professional self-image, job satisfaction, nursing work environment, and QoLW. Pearson correlation tested correlations between variables and multiple regression was conducted to predict OC and QoLW.

MEASUREMENTS

The five measurements (job satisfaction, professional self-image, work environment, OC, and QoLW) based on validity questionnaires with high internal confident.

RESULTS

All five variables showed a significant positive correlation. Job satisfaction (t = 5.77, p < 0.001) and nursing work environment (t = 4.55, p < 0.001), contributed significantly to the explanation of OC and QoLW variance. Nursing work environment (t = 6.42, p < 0.01) and job satisfaction (t = 2.99, p < 0.01) were the variables that predicted QoLW.

CONCLUSIONS

Nursing managers should be proactive and create a professional environment for nurses to encourage their OC and QoLW as factors that may influence public health nurses.