NURSES LEADING PRIMARY HEALTH CARE DIRECTIONS AND OPTIONS

DR. ARACELI MAGLAYA

Formulate Plans that Support Individual/Family and Community Health Efforts

Enhancing the Empowering Potential of People to Assume Responsibility for Health Promotion & Disease Prevention and Management
Mobilize Partnerships to Identify and Solve Health Problems

Monitor Health Status to Identify Community Health Problems

Assessment
Diagnose and Investigate Health Problems/Hazards in the Community

Nursing Practice: Art: Caring Towards Human Becoming Science: Practice-Based Evidence Evidenced-based Methods and Tools

Policy/Program Development/ Advocacy/ Implementation

Develop Policies that Support Individual and Community Efforts

Enforce Laws and Regulations that Protect Health and Ensure Safety

Generate New Insights/Solutions to Health Problems

Ensure a Competent Public Health and Personal Health Care Workforce

Quality Assurance (Core Community Health Functions)

Evaluate Effectiveness, Accessibility, and Quality of Personal and Population-based Health Services (Essential Community Health Services)

Link People to Needed Personal Health Services Ensure the Provision of Health Care/implementation of Health Programs that address health problems/ hazards

A. Nurses can become MODELS of how to deliver quality health care service to enhance the empowering potential of clients in the communities to address barriers to health and wellness, prompt and appropriate management of diseases and disability reduction to achieve psychosocial and economic productivity and enhanced human responses to handle stresses and change.

 Motivation to use Practice-based Evidence and Evidence-based Methods and Tools Discipline in carrying out Standards of Care to Guide Nursing Practice.

 Competence in the use of Participatory Approach to understand clients human responses to health and illness realities; and analyze with clients realistic and effective options to improve attitudes or situations/resources.

In a participatory approach, we engage the community in an egalitarian relationship to look, think and act, given the peoples lived experiences on health, illness, health service access and understand why status quo is a mainstay.

By enhancing the competence of clients to understand, analyze and carry out options to address hopelessness, helplessness, hardiness - they can sustain motivation to change the current reality, in order to put Health and Health Care in their hands!

B. Nurses as leaders can make plans for and prepare personnel in sufficient numbers to meet the nursing service needs of individuals, families and communities.

 Nurses can link clients to needed services (e.g. setting up effective two-way referral system from the community/home to an acute health care facility and back, ensuring adequate hospital discharge instructions for accurate/effective home care)

 Nurse leaders can actively participate in Health Human Resources Analysis Projection and Development/Enhancement (e.g. professional growth in nursing career path)

 They need to take the lead in developing policies, options and systems to address inequities, accessibility problems, unresponsive/incompetent nurse service providers.

C. Nurses should create social systems in which Models of nursing care/practice, excellent education and significant scientific inquiry are demonstrated and can flourish.

 Staff Nurses/Practitioners can demonstrate competence in addressing health and health care delivery issues/problems/gaps using participatory approaches; sustained interest for professional growth via formal/degree programs or short-term practicebased training.

 Administrators demonstrate a passion for/commitment to do periodic and effective audits to ensure quality and efficient services.
Educators advance own competence thru nursing practice and practice-based research.

D. Advance knowledge in nursing science through researches on improving clients human responses to handle inequities, poverty and behavior change.

Researches: Enhance Disciplined Action in Client Care Situation Generate New Insights/Solutions to Health Care Delivery Gaps/Problems

E. Foster development of innovative and creative nurses as future leaders/successors for articulating values that unify efforts to deliver quality service in partnership with communities, ensuring effective linkages/teamwork with partner institutions, change agents and policy-makers.

CONCLUSION
The PNA Convention theme Delivering Quality Service, Serving Communities with Nurses leading Primary Health Care - is about giving of self, heart, values, ideals. It requires risk-taking, overcoming resistance, challenging the norm, using the creation paradigm to change status quo.

Nurse leaders need to reinvent themselves by thinking and behaving in new ways. Deep change is transformative, involving creative experimentation, collaboration and a view to the future. Leadership requires all of us to . . .

. . .dare to care!