Paper
Thursday, 20 July 2006
This presentation is part of : Nurse-Managed Health Centers: A Growing Movement to Serve the Healthcare Needs of Vulnerable and Underserved Communities
The Role of Nurse-Managed Health Centers in Promoting the Health of Communities
M. Elaine Tagliareni, EdD, RN, Department of Nursing, Community College of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, USA
The provision of health promotion programs and services designed to improve the health of communities is an important mission of all Nurse Managed Health Centers.  While almost half of the estimated 250 NMHCs in the United States focus their services exclusively on health promotion programs and services, all NMHCs conduct health promotion activities.  However, there has been limited documentation of the scope of services provided and the clients served.  This study was undertaken by 7 academic affiliated NMHCs located throughout Pennsylvania, Connecticut, and northern Virginia to describe the services provided and clients served during a 12 month period.  Although six centers provided exclusively health promotion services, one offered primary care as well.  Each provided a wide range of health promotion services and programs based upon a needs assessment of the local community and guidelines specified in the Healthy People 2010 Goals for the Nation.  All centers used the same data collection tool, which they had developed and tested over the course of the 2 years prior to the study.  Health promotion activities were organized according to the four categories of the Omaha classification system and provision was made for distinguishing between activities conducted in group vs. individual settings.  During the study period, over 1100 groups were conducted, with a total attendance of 22,507 and 4317 clients were served during individual sessions.  Study results will be presented and will demonstrate that the services provided varied by center, depending upon the needs and characteristics of the populations and communities served.  Questions raised by these results and strategies for addressing them will be discussed.

See more of Nurse-Managed Health Centers: A Growing Movement to Serve the Healthcare Needs of Vulnerable and Underserved Communities
See more of The 17th International Nursing Research Congress Focusing on Evidence-Based Practice (19-22 July 2006)