Evidence of Public Health Nursing Effectiveness: A Realist Review

Abstract

Despite the long history of PHN working in communities to promote and maintain the health of vulnerable populations, practice outcomes have not been well documented. Further work is needed to: strengthen the methods for documenting effectiveness of PHN practice; focus on promising PHN interventions via multisite studies; and translate evidence-based PHN interventions to practice settings.

Increasing the capacity of public health nursing to strengthen the public health infrastructure and to promote and protect the health of communities and populations

“…Not unlike other public health efforts, however, evidence of these achievements has not always been well documented or studied. A recent review of studies focusing on health education, behavior change, and screening over a period of 20 years (1990e2010) found evidence for the effectiveness of PHN interventions in close to half of the studies (Swider, Levin, & Reising, 2017). Public health nurses have the ability to care for individuals and communities through effective case management, which has been shown to improve chronic illness outcomes (Kneipp et al, 2011).…”

Evaluating self‐directed learning abilities as a prerequisite of health literacy among older people: Findings from a validation and a cross‐sectional study

“…With the increasing age of the population and the need to promote active ageing (Coleen, ; LeBlanc & Jacelon, ), HL has become crucial also among older people and for all those who provide care to them (Coleen, ; León‐González et al, ; Wang et al, ). By evaluating HL among older people, nurses can provide a more effective education and improve health outcomes (Swider, Levin, & Reising, ) by developing effective self‐management abilities (Kim & Utz, ). In daily practice, this implies an active involvement of older individuals, the evaluation of their HL level, as well as their SDL abilities: these elements have been documented as prerequisites of tailored educational opportunities aimed at informing, providing evidence and stimulating their looking for clarifications from nurses themselves (Harbour & Greall, ; Kim & Utz, ).…”

Public health nursing: regulation and public health policies

“…In this sense, the defense of the dissemination of governance models by nurses is considered relevant, even for the recognition of these professionals, in their ability to coordinate and implement programs at national and local levels, especially related to children and vaccination. Thus, one will seek to obtain health gains and place Portugal among the European countries with the best results in this field (12) , as well as encouraging multi-localized studies that highlight the best interventions of the specialist nurse in community and public health nursing (6) .…”

“…Even in an international perspective, in this era of increasing restrictions on public resources, which affect health services and also manifest themselves in other realities, it is important to know what, in practice, adds the intervention of the specialist nurse in community health nursing and public health (6) .…”