Public health nursing in crisis

The problems experienced in public health nursing in the United States are serious and many. The proposed solution may provide a method for change. Delivery of services will then focus on public health needs and will resist the the pressure to fit needs to available funds. Provider outreach to meet community needs will supersede primary care. The health professions will share resources rather than responsibilities. Public health nursing will focus on disease prevention and control rather than on treatment, and nurse practitioners in other specialties will refer clients to public health nurses when their particular skills are needed. Thus resolution of the present crisis may result in a stronger cadre of public health nurses who are secure in their role and revitalized in their dedication to health care in the community.     

Exploring the past: mental health nursing in Greece

This paper aims to explore the evolution of psychiatric nursing from the delayed organization of an asylum mental health system in Greece to the present. The care and custody of mental health patients which was in the hands of police at the first asylum passed to the hands of uneducated staff and gradually to the hands of qualified nurses. Severe overcrowding along with limited resources and low staff numbers resulted in the poor quality of living conditions. In this context, psychiatric nursing took its first steps in Greece, without realizing the inherent conflict in its dual role, that of care and social control. Counter to the handed-down cliché about psychiatric hospitals, nurses frequently put great effort into improving the living conditions of patients. However, the regulations of the institutions emphasizing the custodial role of nursing together with other structural factors of the psychiatric system impeded nurses' attempts to improve institutional care considerably. Nowadays, psychiatric hospitals are shrinking at a rapid pace, leaving behind them – as heritage for the psychiatric nurses who try to define their new role in community – the pioneers of psychiatric nursing's courage, ethos and respect for the psychiatric client.     

Public health nursing education in Russia

The collapse of the Soviet Union in 1990 brought many changes to Russia, including changes in nursing education. However, the changes did not include content in public health nursing. Most health care in Russia is provided at the tertiary level in hospitals. Health promotion and health education are new concepts in Russia and are not well understood. When health education does occur, it is at the individual level, taught by physicians, and in response to new diagnoses. Health promotion at the primary level and with aggregates is not often practiced. Russia currently is in a demographic crisis where health indicators continue to decline. Russian nurses trained in public health principles, such as health promotion, health education, and providing primary and secondary prevention services at the population and aggregate level, can positively affect the current demographic crisis.