Nurses Without Walls: The Public Health Nurse's role in planning and responding to a public health crisis

Abstract:

Nurses Without Walls is public health nursing in action. From public health planning, to disaster nursing to global public health activities, PHNs truly practice without walls.

The role of the Public Health Nurse is as varied as the PHN's role in public health emergency preparedness. The intent of "Nurses Without Walls" is to spotlight the theoretical framework for PHN practice both in the United States and around the world. The ten essential public health services such as the monitoring of a community's health status, to investigating problems to developing policies and plans along with education of the community will be the springboard for review of the 4 phase plan of public health emergency response planning mitigation and response(PHERP). The core competancies and scope of PHNursing practice as they relate to PHERP will be underscored.

The PHN's contributions to sytematic planning,maintaining standards of PHN practice, and demonstrating standards of care and performance will be reviewed while speaking to growth from novice to expert in public health nursing. These concepts will then be applied to the PHN's role in response from opening a mass vaccination clinic to responding to a disaster situation.

The roles of PHNs around the world are varied while reflecting the theoretical basis and competancies of public health practice. The breadth of opportunites for making a global impact on public health will explored.

Examples of PH nursing's contribution the Katrina/Rita response, recovery and rebuilding will be offered. The PHN exhibits competancy, excellence in communication and collaborative skills as an essential member of response, recovery and rebuilding teams. A 20 minutes film is available for presenation.

Discussion to involve identifying strategies to increase the number of nurses working in public health.