The role of public health nurses in emergency preparedness and response: a position paper of the Association of State and Territorial Directors of Nursing.

The Association of State and Territorial Directors of Nursing vision for emergency preparedness is that every community, family, and individual will have a comprehensive emergency preparedness plan that minimizes the consequences of disasters and emergencies, and enables communities, families, and individuals to respond and recover. This position paper provides national and state policy guidance during emergencies to all public health nurses in the United States and its Territories. Public health nurses bring critical experience to each phase of a disaster: mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery. Public health nurses strive to achieve individual competencies so that they may better collaborate with others and contribute to emergency preparedness and response. Twelve Emergency Preparedness Competencies are listed in this position paper that will assist public health nurses with disaster prevention, planning, response, recovery, drills, exercises, and training. This position paper will be useful in clarifying the expertise that public health nurses can contribute to teams that serve to protect the health and safety of communities against disaster threats and realities.

Developing population health competencies among public health nurses in Georgia.

As part of a new vision for public health in Georgia, the role of the public health nurse (PHN) is shifting from a predominantly individual and clinic-based care model to a population health practice model. Based on focus groups conducted with management and frontline PHNs in 2001, nurses in Georgia were unprepared for this transition and lacked a strong understanding of population health concepts and competencies. To prepare nurses for their new and expanded responsibilities, an online population health course was developed specifically for currently employed PHNs. The Quad Council PHN Competencies (2003) provided the roadmap in identifying the population health online course and continuing education training program priority competencies for PHNs in Georgia. Along with incorporating the competencies into case studies and didactic learning, the required projects served as evidence of competency application. The population health online course was offered from fall 2000 to spring 2005 in collaboration with Georgia schools of nursing and has enabled a cohort of nurses to lead the way as Georgia transitions into a new public health model. Nurses who completed the course reported greater experience with and an understanding of population health competencies.