Community health nursing definition

Amid these challenges, all nurses can improve health outcomes and expand the infrastructure for monitoring and managing diseases.
In traditional public health settings, community health nurses work to ensure that expectant and new mothers have the resources to appropriately care for themselves and their children.

There are many subfields of community health nursing, including:

Community health nursing is a rapidly growing nursing subspecialty that aims to improve the health and well-being of individuals in a certain geographic area.
Given widespread physician and healthcare provider shortages, rural locations increasingly reliant on creating a strong network of community health nurses.

The American Public Health Association defines public health nursing as, "the practice of promoting and protecting the health of populations using knowledge from nursing, social, and public health sciences". 1 As individuals, nurses directly influence the health and wellbeing of patients every day.

Community health nursing is guided by several principles that provide a foundation for practice

These principles are essential for promoting health, preventing illness and injury, and providing care to individuals and families in community settings

Here are some of the key principles of community health nursing:

They focus on vulnerable populations, including low-income families, people living in rural areas, immigrants, and individuals with disabilities

The relationship between community health nurses and their patients is egalitarian, meaning they share the responsibility of the patient’s health outcome

Health care in the context of the community represents an alternative mode of health-care delivery

Emphasis is placed on promoting health and access to care by addressing the health-care needs of people where they live and work

Moreover, local community needs, resources and preferences of the people drive community health services