Read the latest blog from Sue West, Senior Nursing Education Adviser Show
As a nurse you have contact with people every day, and must make every interaction you have count. Each conversation or encounter with someone is a vital opportunity to help them improve their own health and wellbeing. For some of us, this might mean providing motivational advice about the importance of staying well to someone with alcoholic liver disease. For others, it might mean helping an older person to exercise in a nursing home, or engaging with school children about healthy eating options. It’s also about role modelling and providing the information, understanding and potential tools for individuals to make choices about their lifestyles. However we do it, by improving public knowledge about health and empowering people to make positive choices for themselves, nurses can play their part to transform communities. ‘Promoting health and preventing ill health’ is so important that it’s one of the seven ‘platforms’ in our latest future nurse standards, which were published in May 2018. They’re the standards that every nurse must meet in order to join (and remain on) our register. So including this platform makes it clear that public health is every nurse’s responsibility. The platform details what newly registered nurses need to know in this area. It includes:
The proficiencies also focus on the power of communication and the need to help people make the most of their personal strengths and expertise to help them make informed choices about their care. When I was at the recent Chief Nursing Officer for Wales 2019 Showcase Conference, I heard about many innovative nurse-led approaches in this area. These included holding health clinics not just in the general practice, but in the local barbers, betting shops and bingo hall. There is lots of great work happening in this area and no shortage of creativity – it’s important we keep sharing this best practice. At the conference we also heard about the A Healthier Wales 5 year plan, which focuses on encouraging good health and wellbeing throughout life. As you’d expect for such a key topic, all four countries of the United Kingdom have individual public health strategies with very similar objectives to our ‘future nurse’ standards. These cover:
These strategies are very helpful resources for all of us. In Public Health England’s recently launched All Our Health strategy, you’ll find a wealth of evidence-based information about health improvement and illness prevention. They’ve even included tips on having brief conversations, health coaching and motivational interviewing. These resources have been made even more user friendly with the launch of the new All Our Health e-learning sessions. Our actions, large or small, can help people, communities and even whole populations to improve their health and wellbeing. Hopefully these resources will help, because wherever we work and in whatever role, we all want to deliver better, safer care.
Public health nurses are qualified and registered nurses or midwives who have then chosen to gain experience or undertake training to specialise in areas such as health protection or sexual health. Working lifeTheir additional training in public health means that public health nurses play a vital role in promoting and protecting the public’s health. This might be by promoting healthy lifestyles and reducing the likelihood of ill-health, supporting people who have long-term illness, or preventing illness through immunisations or screening interventions. They are employed in a variety of settings including the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities, local authorities and the NHS.
 Download transcript Public health nurse rolesThe following list doesn't include all of the roles available for public health nurses, but provides examples of the types of roles available.
Health promotion nurseHealth promotion nurses work with groups in the community and organisations (primary healthcare teams, voluntary and statutory organisations) to identify the health needs of the community and the most appropriate ways of intervening to improve their health. They plan their interventions on a firm evidence-base and then work with their clients in a variety of community settings to meet their needs. Such interventions may include, for example:
They also provide information and support to promote and optimise positive health. The managerial aspects of their role include:
Health promotion nurses also have an educational role, helping to support, mentor and train junior staff, participating in clinical supervision, annual staff appraisal, and auditing to ensure maintenance of standards. Health protection nurseHealth protection teams are responsible for ensuring that the public are protected from infectious diseases and other non-infectious hazards to health. Nurses working in this field have a crucial role to play in this interesting and varied area. They work with individuals, families and the wider population, which may include taking decisions on behalf of a community or population. The health protection nurse works with a wide range of organisations, disciplines and agencies to undertake disease surveillance, contribute to the management of incidents, outbreaks and control strategies, as well as leading or supporting the implementation of new directives, guidance and policy to protect the public’s health. The day-to-day role of the health protection nurse may include:
Tuberculosis (TB) nurseTuberculosis nurses work in the community or within health protection teams to provide care and support for people being investigated or treated for tuberculosis (TB). They may be involved, with their team, in managing an outbreak. They also visit people at home, ensuring they receive the support that they, as individuals with different needs, require to complete their course of treatment. They provide their clients and other health professionals with information and advice about TB. To help contain the spread of TB, these nurses work to establish who has been in contact with infected clients so they can be traced and offered a check-up and, if necessary, treatment. Infection control nurseInfection control nurses establish and maintain effective and efficient systems for the prevention, investigation, control and surveillance of infections in the workplace. Infection control nurses need to provide strong leadership that inspires and motivates others to ensure all infection control policy and procedures are implemented. He or she would normally have the authority, through specialist knowledge, to advise on agreed standards of infection prevention and to control care service delivery to patients, their carers and all hospital staff. Want to find out more?
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What does a nurse do to promote public health?
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