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Just what do we mean by community? Conceptualizations from the field
1School of Nursing, Faculty of Nursing and Health, Griffith University, Queensland, Australia.
Health & Social Care in the Community
|September 19, 2001
Summary
Community health nurses conceptualize the community abstractly but focus on practical elements like geography and resources. The
Area of Science:
- Nursing Science
- Public Health
- Sociology
Background:
- Community health nursing literature offers various theoretical frameworks for defining 'community'.
- The concept of 'community as client' is fundamental but its practical application remains unclear.
- Understanding how nurses perceive and interact with communities is crucial for effective practice.
Purpose of the Study:
- To explore how community health nurses conceptualize and operationalize 'community'.
- To identify the most important theoretical concepts in community health nursing practice.
- To examine the utility of the 'community as client' model in real-world settings.
Main Methods:
- Grounded theory research methodology.
- In-depth interviews with 17 experienced community health nurses.
- Thematic analysis of transcribed interview data.
Main Results:
- Nurses view community abstractly using systems thinking but describe practice settings by geography, resources, networks, and target groups.
- The 'community as client' concept was not universally applied.
- Community connectivity, particularly among members, significantly influenced whether the community was viewed as a client.
Conclusions:
- Nurses' practical understanding of community is multifaceted, integrating abstract and concrete elements.
- The application of 'community as client' is context-dependent, influenced by population connectivity.
- Further research can refine theoretical frameworks to better align with community health nursing practice.