Recorded presentation

Sonda Oppewal, PhD, RN, School of Nursing, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Carrington Hall, CB #7460, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-7460, 919 843-6169, soppewal@unc.edu, Beth F. Lamanna, WHNP, MPH, RN, Dep. of Community Health, School of Nursing, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, CB# 7460, Carrington Hall, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-7460, Pamela A. Kulbok, RN, DNSc, School of Nursing, University of Virginia, P.O. Box 800782, Charlottesville, VA 22908, and Joy F. Reed, EdD, North Carolina Department of Health, Office of Public Health Nursing and Professional Development, 1915 Mail Service Center, Raleigh, NC 27699.

The purpose of this session is to explore how public health nursing education and practice has improved with the use of the Council on Linkages between Academia and Public Health Practice (COL) “Core Competencies for Public Health Professionals”, and specifically the nursing specific application of the competencies as endorsed and disseminated by the Quad Council of PHN Organizations in 2003. Using the diffusion of innovation theory as a framework, we posited a query about the use of the Quad Council PHN Competencies on the Association of Community Health Nurse Educators (ACHNE) listserv approximately three months after the Quad Council organizations posted the final competencies on their websites. We expected that ACHNE nurse educators would represent innovators within the diffusion model, and hence more likely to have considered or tried integrating the competencies in nursing curricula. Despite a limited number of responses, we found that most nursing educators were using the competencies at the undergraduate level, more often with didactic courses than clinical; and all but one respondent viewed the competencies favorably. To expand our response rate and explore the use of the competencies in practice settings, we plan on surveying participants at a national academic/practice public health nursing conference in June 2004 to better understand awareness of the competencies, integration within curricula or practice settings, recommendations for adopting this innovation, and impact. The findings will help us better understand how this important project on core competencies for public health nurses can improve practice-specific education and training.

Learning Objectives:

• Describe three ways the Quad Council PHN Competencies have been used in nursing education or practice settings.
• Explore recommendations for successful incorporation of the Quad Council PHN Competencies in nursing education and practice settings.
• Articulate how public health nursing practice and education has improved with the use of the Quad Council PHN competencies.

Keywords: Competency, Public Health Nursing

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.

Recorded presentation