Population Health Nursing Assessment Tool (PHNAT) and reflective practice

Background: The public health nurse's first entry into the community may be the assessment serving as a foundation for the development of relationships and partnerships. The tool guides the public health nurse with the process of discovery and decision-making by provid¬ing information about the health of the individual, family, community, sys¬tem, and population. The tool facilitates a reflective practice, an important component for any population-based assessment. Reflection enables the nurse to ask questions that affords a new perspective to the primary health care needs required. Description: This presentation discusses the author developed Public Health Nursing Assess¬ment Tool (PHNAT) that adapts concepts found in Healthy People 2020 and the Minnesota Public Health Intervention Wheel. The tool integrates the process of self-reflection requiring the nurse to be open to the assessment experience and facilitating a broader world-view. Other public health nursing assessment tools will be identified. Lessons Learned: The PHNAT facilitates an experience that goes beyond the collection of data. Nurse must question findings and their own beliefs, thus developing a deeper awareness of the community and its population of people. Recommendations: The PHNAT offers a unique tool that facilitates reflective practice in public health nursing. Public health nurses and nursing faculty can use this tool as a way to introduce oneself into a community and develop relationships towards partnerships and collaborative practices.