Like many other state health departments, the Missouri Department of Health is working to prepare the local public health nursing workforce to provide population-based services to communities impacted by demographic changes. Public health nurses in local health departments throughout the state are increasingly being called upon to respond to the needs of diverse and dynamic populations. In 1999, as a direct response to these challenges, a task force made up of local agency nurses, administrators, and educators was organized to discuss and formulate population-based public health nursing competencies. The task force published a report that identified competencies necessary to perform population-based public health nursing based on the Missouri core function model and made recommendations for assisting the nurses to obtain the competencies. A self-report assessment survey of nurses currently working in the public health system at the state and local levels was then conducted to determine the nurse's knowledge about population-based practice. In this survey, the nurses indicated their ability to respond to fifty questions related to the population-based public health nursing competencies. The results of the survey identified the competency areas in which the nurses needed education, barriers to obtaining education, and preferred learning format. The information from the survey was used to develop a plan to provide education and prepare the nurses to practice with a population-based focus in communities with diverse populations.
Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of the the session, the participant will be able to: list population-based public health nursing competencies; describe an assessment process used to determine nurses' knowledge of population-based competencies; and discuss compentency areas identified as needing further education and barriers to education
Keywords: Public Health Nursing,
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.