Learn to articulate your practice

Since 1981, the Los Angeles County (LAC) –Department of Public Health (DPH) has conducted an Annual Nursing Conference that has evolved into a sharing of practice issues. This conference provides Public Health Nursing (PHN) employees an opportunity to submit abstracts and share with other PHN employees, as well as students from local universities, innovative practices based on the LAC-PHN Practice Model (LAC-PHN-PM). The LAC-PHN-PM is composed of the Scopes and Standards of PHN, Healthy People 2010, PH Core Functions and Ten essential services, Population Based Practice, and Minnesota's Public Health Interventions.

Although, abstract submissions have increased, nurses continue to find it difficult to articulate the practice of the PHN employee as outlined in the LAC-PHN-PM. This adds to the inability to show evidenced-based outcomes related to his or her work. Of the abstracts received, 75% or more are returned to be restructured in accordance with the LAC-PHN-PM.

Therefore, the Education and Professional Development Unit addressed barriers identified by the PHN employees prohibiting them from articulating PHN practice in the language of the model. The barriers include difficulty understanding the components of the LAC-PHN-PM, how the components inter-relate and the uncertainty in articulating PHN practice.

In order to improve the understanding and increase the self-efficacy of the PHN staff, an initiative approach was taken by the Education and Professional Development Unit. A series of workshops for the PHN staff were developed and implemented. The series entitled “Learn to Articulate Your Practice” is assisting the PHN staff with his or her ability to articulate PHN practice in the format of the LAC-PHN-PM.