Nurses Role In Primary Care

Nursing is the protection, promotion, and optimization of health and abilities, prevention of illness and injury, facilitation of healing, alleviation of suffering through the diagnosis and treatment of human response, and advocacy in the care of individuals, families, groups, communities, and populations. It is the unique role of a nurse to care for individuals sick or well, in hospital or at home. For many of us when we think of nursing and nurses, our thoughts are diverted to a hospital setting. However, the unique function of a nurse goes beyond the walls of hospital. Primary care nursing therefore, is a shift from the narrow perspectives of hospital based care with its treatment and cure of already established disease; to the promotion

The primary health care team consist of GP’s, Public Health Nurses, Community Nurses, Specialised Nurses, Occupational Therapist, Physiotherapist and many other multidisciplinary teams. Nursing is one of the keys to primary care. Perhaps more than any other social, health or medical workers, nurses cross the boundaries between public, voluntary and private health and social care sectors. Primary health care nurses work in a range of settings, each sharing the characteristic that they are a part of the first level of contact with the health system. The main employment settings of nurses who work in primary care are Community based residential units, Hospice care, Public Health Nurse, Community Registered General Nurses and Practice nurses. The role of nurses in primary care is to prevent illness, promote and protect health while considering social, economic, cultural and political determinants of health. The determinants of health are a range of interacting factors that shape health and wellbeing and are underpinned by social and economic inequalities (Marmot Review, 2010). These determinants include: material circumstances, the social environment, psychosocial factors, behaviours and biological factors. In turn, these factors are influenced by social position, itself shaped by education, occupation, income, gender, early childhood development,

Determinants of health in the social environment, such as parental employment, income, social class and parents’ level of educational attainment, are highly significant in determining child health and development outcomes (WHO CSDH, 2012; OMCYA, 2009 ). Furthermore, the quality of the physical environment (including housing and the walkability and safety of the local area) can play a significant role in children’s opportunities for health, play and physical activity (De Róiste and Dinneen, 2005; O’Keefe, 2009). In the health sector, prevention and early intervention for child health is not a new approach. Many long-established child health programmes hold prevention and early intervention approaches at their core, including national child health immunisation programmes, and screening and assessment programmes. Core programmes of child health developmental assessment and screening operate in both jurisdictions of the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland (Programme for Action for Children/HSE, 2005; DHSSPS, 2010) and make a substantial contribution to supporting optimal child development. In addition, service-led and community-based health promotion initiatives have been developed with regard to many aspects of child health, including healthy eating, physical activity, injury prevention, mental health and tobacco/alcohol use