Roundtable

Research addressing the safety and quality of population-focused nursing practice is sparse, partly due to lack of funding opportunities and partly due to a lack of a cogent research agenda around which programs of research can be developed. Successful evidence-based public health nursing (PHN) practice depends on high-quality research that addresses practice safety and quality. Setting the Stage As a first step, a 3-day invitational conference in October brought experts together from multiple disciplines to consider the quality, safety and costs of population-focused PHN interventions and their relationship to population health outcomes. Funded by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, the conference agenda centered on how public health nursing interventions contribute to outcomes for populations and how those population outcomes may be affected by the safety and quality of PHN practice and interventions. The conference goal was to identify, through consensus, a set of conceptual and methodological questions to which answers are needed to lay the foundation for continuing evidence. Presentations and working sessions addressed PHN practice that focuses on the population as patient or client, i.e., the collective recipients of public health services or programs focused on and delivered to a population. From Agenda to Performance The next step is integrating the research agenda resulting from the October consensus conference into funding priorities, educational offerings, and research collaborations. This roundtable session will begin with a presentation of the consensus conference results, including identified gaps in evidence for establishing quality and safety standards for PHN interventions and to link PHN interventions to population health outcomes. Bridging Gaps Participants will then break into small work groups to develop action plans for advancing the consensus research agenda, specifically strategies for promoting its integration into supporting frameworks. Each roundtable will address integration strategies and barriers specific to a key arena, for example, funding, education, or collaborative research programming in relation to the cost, quality, safety, or outcomes of population-focused public health nursing interventions. More specific themes for each table will be confirmed following the October meeting and disseminated prior to the session at PHN Section business meeting.

Session Objectives: 1.Define concepts of safety and quality in public health nursing practice. 2.List key research foci for public health nursing practice safety and quality that were developed via multidisciplinary consensus. 3.Describe conceptual and methodological barriers to conducting research on public health nursing practice safety and quality.

CE Credits: Medical (CME), Health Education (CHES), Nursing (CNE), Public Health (CPH)