• Project Profiles
  • NICU Feeding Practices
  • Approaches to Public Health Nursing
  • HKN Gap Analysis
  • Evidence Literacy Project
  • Assessing Patient Complexity
  • Early Identification of Autism
  • Measuring Quality Care
  • Young Adults in Long-Term Care
  • Reducing Medication Errors
  • Making Exercise Sticky
  • Stroke Guidelines
  • Driving Change in Mental Health
  • Help for New Mothers
  • Mentoring Makes a Difference
  • Pay-for-Performance
  • Good Care is About People
  • Working Better Together
  • Health Technology Assessment
  • Looking at the Link between Pain and Aggression
  • Reviewing Determinants of Health
  • End of Life Care Decisions in Focus
  • Rural Health Service Delivery
  • Looking at Organizational Problems
  • Integrating Evaluation with Planning
  • Rural Health Needs
  • Suicide Prevention
  • Student Health
  • Hepatitis A Immunity Project
• Participant Profiles
• Knowledge Infostructure
• Celebrating the Legacy

Evaluating Approaches to Public Health Nursing

About 10 years ago, public health nursing in
Grande Prairie was reorganized from generalist,
geographic assignments to specialist, target-population-focused teams. The shift happened only within the city; rural public health sites were not affected. Although an evaluation of the results was intended, it never occurred. Tara Harpe, Administrative Coordinator for Community Health, decided to look at this issue as part of SEARCH Custom Evidence Literacy Curriculum in which she participated.

Her goal was to find a body of existing literature describing practice-based evidence to inform the evaluation of generalist vs. specialist teams. She hoped to determine whether there is a consensus for best practice.

"I didn't find conclusive quantitative evidence and that was frustrating," says Harpe. "However, there is a lot of excellent qualitative evidence that says although there are certain situations that require specialists, public health nursing is best practiced in a generalist way. The literature says the role of the generalist is crucial to providing holistic service to clients and communities."

Harpe, who has an administrative background, found some aspects of the curriculum challenging but invigorating. "I was certainly kept on my toes! Based on my experience, I'd say that SEARCH is valuable no matter what your background. Learning to conduct efficient searches in the professional databases was a highlight of the course and making sure you're asking the right question applies no matter what job you're doing. I'm so much more aware of this now."