| Thursday, 20 July 2006: 10:30 AM-12:00 PM | |||
| Nurse-Managed Health Centers: A Growing Movement to Serve the Healthcare Needs of Vulnerable and Underserved Communities | |||
| Learning Objective #1: The learner will be to describe the clients served and scope of services provided by nurse-managed health centers. | |||
| Learning Objective #2: The learner will be able to identify 5 challenges faced by nurse-managed health centers and 5 resources or strategies for addressing them. | |||
| Since 1985, there has been a rapid growth of nurse-managed health centers (NMHCs), with the number now estimated to be approximately 250 in the United States and an undetermined number in other countries as well. In nurse-managed health centers, a nurse occupies the chief management position and advanced practice nurses are the primary care providers. Within the US, about half of the NMHCs are operated by schools of nursing, while others are affiliated with non profit social service and/or public health organizations. Although some of the NMHCs provide exclusively health promotion services, many provide primary care as well. Often located in low-income neighborhoods, public housing facilities, homeless shelters, and rural areas, these centers have been established in collaboration with the communities served and have emerged as important safety net providers, caring for the poor, the uninsured, and predominantly minority populations. NMHCs view their clients’ actual and potential health problems within the context of societal, environmental, and cultural influences and care for not only their clients, but for their families and the community. Two papers to be presented as part of this symposium will report on the results of studies conducted with a sample of NHMCs to describe the clients and services provided both through their primary care and health promotion services and to compare selected outcomes of those services with similar, non nurse-managed center providers. A third paper will present results of a qualitative study of the challenges faced by 10 NMHCs over a 10 year period—challenges that threaten their survival. The final paper will discuss the results of two studies of regulatory issues, both within the US and other countries, that affect the long term survival of nurse-managed centers. | |||
| Organizer: | Eunice King, PhD, RN | ||
| Nurse-Managed Health Centers: the Hidden Safety-Net Nancy L. Rothman, MSN, EdD, RN | |||
| The Role of Nurse-Managed Health Centers in Promoting the Health of Communities M. Elaine Tagliareni, EdD, RN | |||
| Challenges faced by 10 Philadelphia Nurse-Managed Health Centers: 1993-2003 Eunice King, PhD, RN | |||
| Challenging the System: An examination of regulatory and legislative barriers to the growth and development of nurse-managed heatlh centers in the U.S. and Abroad Tine Hansen-Turton, BA, MGA | |||