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The Face of Public Health Nursing in West Virginia

Since its beginnings, in 1893 under the leadership of Lillian Wald, public health nursing has been a critical component of the country’s health care system.  Throughout the decades, this professional nursing specialty has been driven by the health needs of communities and populations.

At the turn of the twentieth century, public health nursing played a dominant role in the fight against diphtheria, smallpox, measles, and other communicable diseases.  In the twenty-first century, public health nursing is positioned to embrace such challenges as bioterrorism, teen pregnancy, environmental hazards, chronic diseases, HIV/AIDS, and many others.  Public health nursing has always responded to the priority health needs of society by serving, individuals, families, groups, or entire communities and populations.

Nursing comprises the largest single workforce in the health system.  Therefore, nurses have significant opportunities for creating the environment in which good health is determined.  This is especially true in public health nursing practice with its focus on services and programs to achieve health promotion and disease prevention.  

Public Health nurses care for all the people of their community.  Public health nurses monitor the spread of disease, keep vigilant watch for environmental hazards, educate the community on how to care for and treat themselves, and train for community disasters and bioterrorism.  Public health nurses advocate not just for the patient, but for the community.

West Virginia Public Health Association's Nursing Section mission:

Who are we?
We are the nursing section of the West Virginia Public Health Association. We are primarily made up of nurses from local health departments in West Virginia, but also include nurses from the West Virginia Bureau for Public Health, School Nurses, and Infection Control Practitioners. We offer membership to anyone who is engaged in the practice of public health, either directly or indirectly, or who is interested in advancement of public health.

Our Mission
To enhance Public Health Nursing through education, peer support, and advocacy whereby nurses may empower their communities to attain and maintain wellness.

Our Vision
To enable confident, educated, motivated, committed, competent Public Health Nurses to provide Public Health Services to their community in a manner that prevents illness/disease and promotes well-being.

 

The Public Health Nursing Section of the American Public Health Association says this about public health nursing:

 “Public health nurses integrate community involvement and knowledge about the entire population with personal, clinical understandings of the health and illness experiences of individuals and families within the population. They translate and articulate the health and illness experiences of diverse, often vulnerable individuals and families in the population to health planners and policy makers, and assist members of the community to voice their problems and aspirations. Public health nurses are knowledgeable about multiple strategies for intervention, from those applicable to the entire population, to those for the family, and the individual. Public health nurses translate knowledge from the health and social sciences to individuals and population groups through targeted interventions, programs, and advocacy”.  

Lamplighter December 2006

Lillian Wald:  A Nursing Pioneer

As a young nurse, Lillian Wald hoped to provide decent health care to residents of New York’s Lower East Side tenements. Her work as the founder of the Henry Street Settlement and the Visiting Nurse Service demonstrated her masterful administrative talents, deep regard for humanity and skill at fundraising and publicizing. Championing the causes of public health nursing, housing reform, suffrage, world peace, and the rights of women, children, immigrants and working people, Wald became an influential leader in city, state, and national politics. Her tireless efforts to link the health of children with the health of nations made her a model of achievement, caring, and integrity throughout her lifetime. Although Wald achieved international recognition, her efforts were always grounded in the belief that the world was simply an expanded version of the culturally diverse neighborhood. To read more on Lillian Wald go to: http://www.jwa.org/exhibits/wov/wald/lw3.html.

West Virginia TRAIN

www.wv.train.org

What is TRAIN?
The TrainingFinder Real-time Affiliate Integrated Network, or TRAIN, is the nation’s premier learning resource for professionals who protect the public’s health. TRAIN is comprised of the national www.train.org site and participating TRAIN affiliate sites. Affiliate sites are managed by many state public health agencies, academic partners, and others. When completed, TRAIN will serve the majority of the U.S. public health workforce.

Because all TRAIN sites are connected, TRAIN users can access information about state, local, national, or international training available to them through any participating TRAIN site.

Learners can use TRAIN to:

  • Search or browse the nationwide database for on-site or distance learning courses
  • Sign up for e-mails about new courses
  • Create a personal learning record of competency-based training
  • Provide and view feedback about courses listed on the site
  • Register online for many courses

Training Providers can use TRAIN to:

  • Efficiently publicize courses to thousands of TRAIN users through multiple web sites – enter course information once (not dozens of times) and it automatically goes to all participating TRAIN sites
  • Manage online registration and student rosters
  • Collect feedback from learners online
  • Post course materials and discussion topics

TRAIN is a project of the Public Health Foundation with a grant from The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and funding from participating states and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

 

Publications:  

Scope and standards of public health nursing practice found at www.nursingworld.org The American Nurses Association is the only full-service professional organization representing the nation's 2.9 million registered nurses (RNs) through its 54 constituent member associations. The ANA advances the nursing profession by fostering high standards of nursing practice, promoting the economic and general welfare of nurses in the workplace, projecting a positive and realistic view of nursing, and by lobbying the Congress and regulatory agencies on health care issues affecting nurses and the public.

Core Competencies for Public Health Professionals found at www.trainingfinder.org/competencies The Council on Linkages Between Academia and Public Health Practice is comprised of leaders from national organizations representing the public health practice and academic communities. The Council grew out of the Public Health Faculty/Agency Forum, which developed recommendations for improving the relevance of public health education to the demands of public health in the practice sector. The need for this improvement, and for public health professionals to place a higher value on practice-specific training and research, were documented by the Institute of Medicine report, The Future of Public Health. This project is supported under a cooperative agreement from the Health Resources and Services Administration.

American Nurses Association Code for Nurses with Interpretive Statements found at www.nursingworld.org - is dedicated to ensuring that an adequate supply of highly-skilled and well-educated nurses is available, the ANA is committed to meeting the needs of nurses as well as health care consumers. The ANA advances the nursing profession by fostering high standards of nursing practice, promoting the economic and general welfare of nurses in the workplace, projecting a positive and realistic view of nursing, and by lobbying the Congress and regulatory agencies on health care issues affecting nurses and the general public. 

National Public Health Performance Standards at http://www.nalboh.org/perfstds/nphpsp.htm - To meet these goals, the NPHPSP has developed a series of instruments that public health policy makers and governing bodies, including local boards of health, can use to measure the delivery of the Essential Services within the state and local public health system. The NPHPSP includes three assessment instruments: