Public Health Nurse

Public health nursing utilizes nursing and public health theory in order to impact the community as a whole through systematic assessment, policy development, and ensuring that health services are accessible to all members of the population (Assessment Technologies Institute, 2010, p. 5). 

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Evidence of Public Health Nursing in Clinical

Marie:
    The school district nurse acts within the role of the public health definition by being an active role in the policy development. The district nurse is a leader and advocate for better use of financial resources for the student body and facility. She is involved in many superintendent meetings with the principals about issues surrounding the schools. She plays an active role in the leadership committee with the principals and superintendent. The nurse stands up for what she thinks will better the school’s community (students and facility). She will advocate for better use of wellness resources for the employees. The district nurse has an active role within policy development regarding the student and employee’s health and wellness. 

    The New Prague School district applied for the SHIP grant to better improve their school lunch program and nutritional selections for the students. The district nurse assessed where the problem is regarding the nutritional value of meals. The nurse collaborated with the nutritional manager to discuss the possibility of different food venders and food selection. The snack carts for all the building now include healthier options.

            The district nurse stays informed and involved by attending district wide meetings. One meeting in particular provided by the State Department of Health includes nurses from the surrounding districts the opportunity to voice their concerns and issues. This provides the nurses an opportunity to learn about other district nurse concerns related to their school and offers problem solving resolutions.
 
Tracy:
    Tanya the Nurse Practitioner I followed shared with me her impact on creating a protocol of Vitamin D therapy for a set of clinics to follow, and how she hopes that it will have an impact on public policy someday. Tanya keeps current in nursing research through being a member of the American Nurses Association and subscribing to a nursing journal. An article she read talked about the impact of low Vitamin D levels, and how it is being linked to Multiple Sclerosis, Endocrine disorders and more. She then collaborated with her staff and the clinic that she works for, and they decided to start assessing the population that they worked with, by screening clients that gave consent. They were astounded by the results, and found that most of the population was severely deficient in Vitamin D. Now that they saw that Vitamin D deficiency was a real problem, they needed to create a program and find a way to increase Vitamin D levels in this population. Tanya and another Nurse Practitioner worked together to gather data on recommended Vitamin D doses, risks of toxicity, therapeutic levels and more. They reached out to a physician who works at Children’s hospital in Minneapolis and specializes in Vitamin D deficiencies, as well as nutritionists. They were able to develop a protocol and throughout the school year have seen increased levels of Vitamin D. Through the development of the Vitamin D protocol they are setting the stage for future research and policy development surrounding Vitamin D deficiency to occur.

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