Strategies for assessing the feasibility to develop new needs-oriented services by public health nurses

To explore the strategies that public health nurses use to assess the feasibility of creating new services.

Although creating a needs-oriented service is a core competency of public health nurses, the practical approaches taken to assess the feasibility of developing new projects are unclear.

Ten Japanese public health nurses were interviewed using Yin's Case Study Method.

The public health nurses employed common strategies to assess the feasibility of new projects regardless of differences in their experience and the services: 'Estimating the impact of a new project', 'Predicting the resources necessary to implement a new service and quantifying their availability', 'Looking for a promoter of the anticipated project', 'Facilitating recognition of public health nursing practice by the unit head and colleagues' and 'Understanding the intentions of the unit head and co-workers with regard to developing a new service'.

These identified empirical strategies facilitate the establishment of new needs-oriented projects by public health nurses.

The new strategies and the model contributed to improving the effectiveness and efficiency of developing a new service by public health nurses at different levels of experience.