CHN
Chapter 2: Foundations of community
And Public Health Nursing Practice
 Hierarchy of nursing science
 This field often regarded as a general
practice for entry level nurses is
actually, a specialized field that
integrates various, disciplines within
and outside of nursing.
 A strong knowledge base is essential
to competently address the myriad
needs and concerns of the people in
the community.
 Community and
 Public Health Nursing
 Mental Health and
Psychiatric Nursing
 Mother and Child
Health Nursing
 Adult Health Nursing
 Key concepts of community and public health
nursing
 3 basic concepts of PHN and CHN:
1. The community as a Client
2. Health as a Goal
3. Nursing as the vehicle or
means to achieve its aims.
 The community is often viewed as a
group of beliefs, values, and
traditions.
 First, having geographic boundaries.
 Second live is an important
determinant of human a shared belief
system or culture.
 Bound by their location, people
develop common beliefs and values
that eventually evolve as culture.
 This set of beliefs acquired over time
accounts for why people across the
globe have similarities and
differences.
 Further, culture spells out people's
primordial concept of behavior
 Filipinos’ belief
 In the Philippines the Concept
of health is the absence of the
Sign and Symptoms.
 The concept is fatal
 When the condition is advanced with
full-blown complications hence
requiring costly hospitalization in
tertiary care
 Geography is truly important in
defining a community but not limited
to it.
 Like Filipinos are not exclusively
living in the Philippines.
 They can be anywhere in the global
community but the culture will
remain.
 Clients
 Dealing with the community as a
client entails a collective approach.
 Individuals, families, and population
groups are included.
 Women, children, elderly, adults form
part of our clientele.
 Community and Public Health work
requires an understanding and respect
for CULTURE in the hope of
introducing meaningful health
information and influencing
people to embrace a culture of health.
 Health
 Health is more than a state of well
being.
 Multidimensional reality that includes:
1. Socioeconomic
2. Environmental, and
3. political factors.
 Multi-disciplinary
 Human Rights
 Nursing
 Nursing is traditionally defined as the
art and science of caring.
 Florence nightingale
 She defined nursing as means of
ensuring that people are placed in an
optimum condition where nature can
contribute to healing and wellness.
 Nursing becomes an act of modifying
and manipulating the environment
 VIRGINA HENDERSON
 “The unique function of the nurse is to
assist the individual, sick or well, in
the performance of those activities
contributing to health or its recovery
(or peace death) that he would
perform unaided if he had the
necessary strength, will or knowledge.
 THREE BASIC CONCEPTS
 Specialized field of nursing that
renders care to:
1. individual
2. families
3. communities
  Focus: Promoting, and disease Characteristics and features of community and public
prevention through people health nursing
Empowerment
 Examples
 Preventive measures like vaccination
and screening activities for certain
diseases for early detection and
prompt treatment are packaged into
health programs for communities.
 Jane Heinrich & Ruth Freeman
 "an area of human services directed
toward developing and enhancing the
health capabilities of people - either
singly, as individuals, or collectively,
as groups and communities."
 •Enabling people in communities
provide them the opportunity to do
things on their own to maximize
wellness.
 Community health nursing
 Community Health Nursing is the
synthesis of nursing and public health
practice applied to promote and
protect the health of population.
 It combines all the basic elements of
professional, clinical nursing with
public health and community practice
(Mengitsu, 2006)
 This entails that the practice of this
field covers various population group
like children and workers.
 Subfields of Nursing include:
 Occupational,
 Health Nursing,
 School Nursing,
 and Correctional Nursing.

What is a community/ Public Health Nurse?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=pdTvSHAcQ1s&ab_channel=KarenTeeley