Perspectives in Family and Community Health [antikvár]

Preface Community health nursing has evolved into a complex, multifaceted nursing specialty that is constantly challenged by an ever-changing health care delivery system. As a caring profession, nursing historically has been committed to assisting people to become healthy and self-sufficient. Community health nursing, which evolved from public health nursing, has responded to changes in society to include the care of such diverse populations as school children, workers, AIDS clients, and the homeless. As a broad field, community health nursing is affected by structural changes in society to a greater degree than other nursing specialties. To understand contemporary community health nursing practice, the nurse must keep current regarding social trends, nursing's development as a profession, health needs, and recent changes in a health care delivery system in a changing and diverse culture. Perspectives in Family and Community Health focuses on the nature of community health nursing in the context of today's society. The purpose of this anthology is to provide nursing students, nurse educators, and practicing nurses with the most current perspectives regarding health care and community health nursing. The articles included were carefully selected to represent a variety of contemporary topics relevant to community health and community health nursing practice. This text was developed to assist nursing students who need to understand the concepts of wellness, family, community, disease prevention, and health promotion whatever their future field of nursing practice. Nurse educators can effectively use this text to keep up with current development and approaches in health care. The text can be equally relevant for practicing community health nurses in the field who want and need to stay abreast of current influences on their nursing practice. Articles were chosen from numerous scholarly sources on a variety of topics related to community health and community health nursing practice. The articles provide in-depth analysis of important issues, research, theory, and applied nursing practice relevant to contemporary community health nursing. The text can be effectively used as a companion to a community health text. In courses where previous community health nursing knowledge is expected, it can be used as a primary community health nursing text. The readings provide the baccalaureate or graduate student with critical perspectives of community health nurse specialists, educators, and researchers, as well as those of other community health specialists. Articles were selected from community health literature to demonstrate the holistic and interdisciplinary nature of the diverse field of community health nursing. Basic and advanced selections appropriate for both baccalaureate nursing students and those in graduate study in community health nursing are included. Recommendations for articles to consider for inclusion were provided by our panel of consultants, including community health educators and specialists in the field. The consultants' recommendations were augmented by my own extensive review of the community health and community health nursing literature. In all, nearly 200 articles were initially considered. I made the first selections to exclude approximately half of these articles, primarily those that were of secondary importance and/or that addressed topics already covered by other articles. Several of our consultants were then asked to review this collection of articles and recommend articles for inclusion in the