Turning the spokes: Application and impact of the Public Health Intervention Wheel

The Public Health Intervention Wheel is a practice-based, evidence-supported model that depicts how public health nurses improve population health through interventions with communities, individuals, and the systems that impact health. The original model was developed from practice through a grounded theory process and presented nationally for first time in 1997 at the American Public Health Association. In 2000, the evidence base of the Wheel was subjected to a rigorous critique by regional and national experts that established the validity of the model. The model was then presented nationally via three national satellite broadcasts. Since that time, the Intervention Wheel has been widely disseminated and embraced by public health nurse practitioners, educators and researchers nationally and internationally. Hundreds of schools of nursing throughout the United States have adopted the Intervention Wheel as a framework for teaching public health nursing. Health departments in several states utilize the Intervention Wheel to orient new staff to population-based practice. The Los Angeles Health Department integrated the Wheel into their new practice model with the goal of revitalizing their PHN practice. Public health nurses in the Shiprock Service Unit adapted the Wheel to reflect their Navajo culture. The Wheel is used by health departments as a framework for documentation, evaluation, and budgets. It is a recognized PHN framework in the Public Health Nursing Scope and Standards of Practice. The Committee on Adolescent Health Care at the Institute of Medicine utilized the Wheel as a foundation for defining its charge and scope of work. The model was one of the frameworks utilized by the Public Health Informatics Institutes to define local health department business processes. The Wheel has served as an organizing framework for inquiry ranging from doctoral dissertations to the epidemiology of the lowly head louse. This session will present examples of the application of the Intervention Wheel and describe its impact on public health nursing practice, administration, research and education.