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Building Healthy Communities to Achieve People's Health

Monday, 7 July 2008
Jianfen Liu, MSN, RN , School of Nursing, Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, China
Huaping Liu, PhD, RN , School of Nursing, Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, China
Pamela Hoyt, RN , Nursing, Dreyfus Health Foundation of the Rogosin Institute, New York, NY

Learning Objective 1: understand the importance of global collaboration among health professionals in improving peoples' health status.

Learning Objective 2: understand the important roles the nurses played in improving health status and quality of life of community residents.

The Dreyfus Health Foundation (DHF) has sponsored collaborative health research in China since 1996. DHF of the Rogosin Institute in New York is an organization aims to catalyze better health for people worldwide. Problem Solving for Better Health Nursing (PSBHN) is one of the programs DHF utilizes in nursing fields to tap the potential of nurses to improve people's quality of life. PSBHN facilitates one's ability to redefine health problems and their roles in solving them and stresses optimization of available resources.

China is a country with 1.3 billion people and many health problems. Nurses in China comprise the largest workforce in healthcare; they are an extremely valuable resource that can significantly impact peoples' health. SON PUMC, involved in global PSBHN network and as home base in China, has led 26 workshops held at hospitals, communities, and nursing schools throughout China including 961 nurses and BSN nursing students in total. The program requires participants to define health problem(s) from their respective work or home community setting, create plan with action-oriented solutions according to a step-by-step process includes an evaluation component. SON PUMC facilitators provide assistance to participants when obstacles arise during implementation phase. Local facilitators and coordinators from DHF conduct sites visits during implementing period. Six to twelve months after the initial workshop, the participants present results in a follow-up workshop. With perseverance and creativity, many participants have expanded their initial plans of action into sustained provincial projects using PSBHN methodology.

To date, several articles have been published in Chinese Journal of Nursing in China. Policy regulations in several hospitals and communities have been modified as a result of project outcomes. The methodology of PSBHN has been incorporated into curricula at some schools of nursing.

See more of: POSTERS: Global Collaboration
See more of: Evidence-Based Practice Sessions – Oral Paper & Posters