What are the activities of a public health nurse?

The RCN believes that nursing should be at the heart of minimising the impact of illness, promoting health and helping people to function at home, work, and leisure. Improving public health should be seen as part of all nursing and midwifery roles.

The RCN report: Nurses 4 public health. The value and contribution of nursing to public health in the UK: Final report (2016) looks at the value and contribution of nurses to public health in the UK.

• Public health is everyone’s responsibility and should be a fundamental part of all nursing roles.
• Nursing skills are rightly valued as being able to provide meaningful public health interventions across all health and social care settings as part of holistic patient centred care.  

Nursing staff work in almost every stage and setting of health and care, and as such they have an important role across a wide range of public health interventions. Public Health England (PHE) have developed ‘All our Health Framework’ which is a call to action to all health care professionals to use their knowledge, skills and relationships, working with patients and the population to prevent illness, protect health and promote wellbeing. The framework includes resources around a number of different areas to help professionals promote health and wellbeing, support them to understand their responsibilities and point out opportunities that make a difference to population health. The Framework has been developed with colleagues across the UK.

The tool kit ‘Everyday Interactions’ has been developed to help health care professional measure the impact of the work they do and how this impacts on the public’s health.

The revised Public Health Skills and Knowledge Framework sets out the core skills and knowledge for all those working in public health. It is accompanied guidance and examples on how it can be used by individuals, employers and educational providers working in public health.

The Health Careers web site includes information about ‘Roles in Public Health’; many of these are nursing careers. The resource includes advice on the work involved and how to get into these particular specialities and areas of work.

Anyone with an interest in public health can become an FPH Associate for only £52 in the first year. By joining, you will:

• Contribute to the Faculty of Public Health aim - to ensure that the world’s population achieves, and maintains, its fullest potential for health and well-being
• Be kept informed of our work, as we quality assure standards, support continuing professional development and campaign on public health issues.
• Receive a monthly e-bulletin with updates on FPH, wider public health news, and opportunities to get involved via our network groups discussion forums
• Get priority access to pre-launch copies of FPH publications on public health issues, including climate change, obesity, smoking and alcohol
• Receive invitations to FPH regional and national events.

For more information click here.

Making Every Contact Count (MECC) is a concept aimed to support public health. The approach behind MECC is to use behavior change techniques with individuals and organisations using the many day to day interactions we all have, to support people making positive changes to their lifestyle. The MECC website developed by Health Education England includes lots of resources and examples of where individual teams and organisations have used the MECC approach successfully. There are further resources and information from the PHE under MECC practical resources.

The Royal College of Midwives report ‘Stepping up to public health’ includes information for midwives and women on the important public health contribution during pregnancy and the first weeks of life.

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Public health nurses (PHNs) are registered nurses whose work and focus is on community health and wellbeing.

Public health nurses do health assessments and disease prevention activities in schools and community settings. Most have very broad responsibilities and are involved in a great variety of work. Some specialise in particular issues such as refugee health, housing issues, child protection and communicable disease control.

They play a key co-ordination role between families / whānau, communities, and health (and other) organisations and agencies. They are also among the first people to gauge any major health and social trends in the community as they see these trends impacting on their clients.

Activities

• Advocate for healthy home environments with families / whānau and communities
• Play a major part in implementing an immunisation programme
• Work with others to develop one-stop-shop health services, for example, a one-stop-shop for youth health
• Work with a primary healthcare organisation (PHO)
• Work with teachers to promote health programmes in schools

Who employs public health nurses?

Almost all public health nurses are employed by district health boards. Some work in public health units and others in departments such as Child Health or Family Health.

Most public health nurses are very mobile, moving around their community every day, touching base with a wide number of organisations and people. They are key players in ensuring the health and wellbeing of communities.

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