Nursing has always been an integral part of community healthcare, and that role will grow in the future. Rising hospital and long-term care costs, medical breakthroughs and new attitudes toward care are all driving demand for improved home care, public health, primary healthcare and other community care services. This move to community health requires careful human resources planning to ensure
adequate skilled staff are available to deliver services and are used to their full potential.
This three-part study is a first step toward meeting the information needs of health system administrators, planners and policy makers as they develop human resources policies for community
health. We set out to answer three broad questions about community health nursing:
1) Who makes up the community nursing workforce and where do they work?
2) What are enablers and barriers to community nurses working effectively?
3) How can organizations support public health nurses to practise the full scope of their competencies?
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