Public health nurses (PHNs) are spending increasing time facilitating the formation, development, and activities of interagency health planning collaboratives. Such collaboratives, are often encouraged or even mandated by funding sources as efficient and useful ways to share expertise and solve problems related to community health assessment, planning, intervention, and evaluation. In an era of limited resources, it is necessary to examine whether the outcomes of such endeavours are worth the effort. This study investigated the relationship between level of participation in a Midwestern regional health planning collaborative and awareness of population focused assessment data, perceived ownership of such data, and utilization of data in planning and implementation of services and programs. Almost 9 out of 10 health related organizations in the region agreed to participate (n=103), and 68% were members of the health planning collaborative. Key informants of organizations in the region were interviewed to measure: organizational participation in the collaborative; awareness of population based data generated by the collaborative; perceived data ownership; and data utilization. Organizational participation was also rated by the collaborative. Results showed that organizations that had higher levels of participation in the regional health planning collaborative used the data more than other organizations. Data were used by organizations in strategic planning, planning of programs and services, and funding requests Implications of these finding for the role of PHNs in collaborative health planning collaboratives are explored.
Learning Objectives: 1. Discuss the role of public health nurses in collaborative health planning. 2. Describe the relationship between organizational participation in collaborative health planning and utilization of data generated
Keywords: Partnerships, Community Health Planning
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: None
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.