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Abstract #156307

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Cate Bohn, MPH, New York State Assessment Initiative, Public Health Information Group, New York State Department of Health, 750 Corning Tower, ESP, Albany, NY 12237, 518-474-2543, cmb20@health.state.ny.us, Donna M. Dyke, RN, MA, Westchester County Department of Health, 145 Huguenot Street, New Rochelle, NY 10801, and Laurel Janssen Breen, RN, MA, Department of Nursing, St. Joseph's College, 155 West Roe Blvd., Patchogue, NY 11772.

Background: The New York Public Health Nursing Summit is a workgroup of educators and public health leaders formed through the auspices of The New York New Jersey Public Health Training Center. The goal of the workgroup is to create a strong partnership between public health leadership and academia to support provision of a skilled public health nursing workforce. The summit workgroup identified a critical need for public health nurse generalists (PHN's) who are educated in competency-based, population based practice. It was discovered that although the Quad Council of Public Health Nursing Organizations (Quad Council) designed a set of core competencies specific to PHN generalists, little is known about how the competencies are viewed from the public health practice setting (Quad Council, 2003; New York Public Health Nursing Summit, June 2005). The interactive partnership between public health nursing education and practice sheds light on the daily use of the Quad Council competencies.

Study Purpose: The workgroup designed a study whose purpose was to identify how well prepared BSN nurse hires in public health nursing practice setting are relative to the Quad Council competencies, the importance of the competencies, and recommendations to nurse educators about preparation of their graduates.

Study Design: The descriptive study utilized an internet survey examining the qualifications and preparation for the practice of Public Health Nursing. The survey audience was public health nurse supervisors in local health departments in New York State.

Results: Preliminary data indicate that there are essential skills for Public Health Nursing practice, identified skill areas in which BSN graduates are not well prepared, and skills which can be learned on the job. Recommendations from the practice setting to academia were collected and will be discussed to strengthen the partnership process.

Learning Objectives:

• • Analyze the results of a statewide survey to identify the importance of the Quad Council Competencies in local public health department nursing practice.
• • Discuss the use of Quad Council competencies for local health department practice in delivering population focused care.
• • Explore ways to strengthen the partnership between local health department practice and PHN education.
• • Discuss implications of the survey results for PHN education at the baccalaureate level.

Keywords: Nursing Education, Competency

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Any relevant financial relationships? No
Any institutionally-contracted trials related to this submission?

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.

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