Public Health Nursing

Model of Care
By Melissa Diebel
Ferris State University

Public Health Nursing (PHN)

Model of Care
Public Health Nursing Model of Care is Defined by
Kuss, T., Proulx-Girouard, L., Lovitt, S., Katz, C., and
Kennelly, P., (1997) stating to provide a
framework for defining public health nursing roles
and practice (p. 81)
This framework is the structure of the PHN services
today and for in the future
Public Health Nursing supports:
Individual Health
Family Health
Community Health

Public Health Nursing (PHN)

Model of Care
Primary focus of the PHN Process:
Maintain Public Health
Promote Public Health
Protect Public Health

Outcomes of PHN care

Preventing disease and disability
Protecting populations from chronic disease
Promoting healthy lifestyles

Public Health Nursing (PHN)

Compared to

Community Health Nursing (CHN)

Differences between PHN and CHN
The PHN focus is on population based interventions
The CHN is based directly on the client

Educational requirements for PHN and CHN

Both require a BSN degree

Educational requirements for PHN specialist and CHN specialist

Both require a MSN degree

The Flowering Tree is one symbol of Public Health Nursing

Kuss, T., Proulx-Girouard, L., Lovitt, S., Katz, C., and Kennelly, P., (1997)

The PHN Model

Relevance to Business

Workforce for public health emergencies

Prevention of local and state acquired medical costs
Mantaining through educating individuals, families and
communities to promote healthy living styles

The PHN Model and Relevance

to Business
The PHN model relates to the County, State and
Government as a business:
There are many benefits of having PHN services
such as:
Preparedness for Natural or man-made
disasters
Disease outbreaks
Bioterrorism

Prevention
Prevention
Prevents an increase cost for Medicaid and Medicare
Providing education for smoking, obesity risks and healthy
lifestyle choices
Early On- Identification, assessment and service coordination for
developmental delays in children from birth to three years of
age.
Communicable disease

Monitoring occurrences
Providing treatment
Tracking outbreaks
Provide immunizations

Importance of Mantaining
Public Health Nursing
If Public Health Nursing was not maintained, we would
experience many of the following:
Negative changes in health statistics

Increase in infant mortality rates

Decrease in Immunization rates
Increase in Chronic disease rates
Increase in drug and alcohol abuse
Increase in child neglect and abuse
Inability to react to a natural or man-made disaster
Uncontrolled disease outbreaks

It is imperative for the health of our nation to maintain these

services promoting, protecting and maintaining healthy
lifestyles

The PHN Model

Meeting the Mission and Values of the Organization

The mission statement for the Oakland County Health Division

directly reflects the Public Health Nursing Model, being that the
primary service of this division is Public Health Nursing:
To protect the publics health through health promotion,
disease prevention, and protection of the environment
Retreived from: http://www.oakgov.com/health/Pages/about.aspx

The Previous PHN Model

at Oakland County
Oakland County Health Division provides multiple PHN services to
the community:

The Nurse on call receives referrals for and distributed them

according to geographical area of the PHN responsibility
The PHN would provide the services based on these requests

The Changed PHN Model at

Oakland County
Modified the structure of the organization by
creating departments for each individualized
service provided
This allowed the nurses to gain a specialization in a
specific role and improved the overall culture which
allowed more focus on the specific area of need.

Transformational Leadership
The PHN Model contributes to the Whole Complex
System
As the system becomes more complex with the flexibility to
adapt supporting the individuals, families, communities and
overall population

Transformational Leadership

Transformational leaders motivate the followers

Importance of the value of change to meet a common goal
Encourage followers to have self-interest in the goal
Meeting the needs of these followers through leadership
and values
The charismatic style is needed to manage multi cultural
teams within the organization and throughout the
community.

Conclusion
In conclusion the PHN model has a primary focus to maintain,
promote, and protect public health. I feel, helping people in the
community through this program can introduce positive change in
their lives. I also believe in prevention rather than treating would
benifit both the community and the orgainzation.

Kuss, T., Proulx-Girouard, L., Lovitt, S., Katz, C., and Kennelly, P., (1997)

References

American Nurses Association. (2010). Nursing: Scope and Standards of

Practice. (2nd Ed.) Silver Spring, MD: Nursesbooks.org?

Kuss, T., Proulx-Girouard, L., Lovitt, S., Katz, C., and Kennelly, P., (1997), A
Public Health Nursing Model: Public Health Nursing 14(2), 81-91.

Marshall, E. (2011). Transformational leadership in nursing: From expert

clinician to influential leader. (1st ed.). New York: Springer

Publishing Company, LLC

Oakland County Health Division, Retrieved from:

http://www.oakgov.com/health/Pages/about.aspx