PUBLIC HEALTH INTERVENTIONS APPLICATIONS FOR PUBLIC HEALTH NURSING

Public Health Nursing Interventions Public health nurses (PHNs) work in schools, homes, clinics, jails, shelters, out of mobile vans and dog sleds. They work with communities, the individuals and families that compose communities, and the systems that impact the health of those communities. Regardless of where PHNs work or whom they work with, all public health nurses use a core set of interventions to accomplish their goals. Interventions are actions that PHNs take on behalf of individuals, families, systems, and communities to improve or protect health status. This framework, known as the “intervention model,” defines the scope of public health nursing practice by type of intervention and level of practice (systems, community, individual/family), rather than by the more traditional “site” of service, that is, home visiting nurse, school nurse, occupational health nurse, clinic nurse, etc. The intervention model describes the scope of practice by what is similar across settings and describes the work of public health nursing at the community and systems practice levels as well as the conventional individual/family level. These interventions are not exclusive to public health nursing as they are also used by other public health disciplines. The public health intervention model does represent public health nursing as a specialty practice of nursing. (See The Cornerstones of Public Health Nursing, Appendix A) An enlarged black and white copy of the wheel can be found in Appendix B. 1Williams, C. A., Highriter, M. E. (1978). Community health nursing–population and practice. Public Health Reviews, 7(4), 201. Section of Public Health Nursing Public Health Minnesota Department of Health 2 Interventions The Intervention Wheel The model, or the “intervention wheel,” as it has come to be known, integrates three distinct and equally important components: 1. The population-basis of all public health interventions 2. The three levels of public health practice: Community Systems Individual/family 3. The 17 public health interventions: Surveillance Disease and Health Threat Investigation Outreach Screening Case-Finding Referral and Follow-up Case Management Delegated Functions Health Teaching Counseling Consultation Collaboration Coalition Building Community organizing Advocacy Social Marketing Policy Development and Enforcement The