Advanced practice nursing in community: nursing's opportunity

Area of Science:

• Nursing Theory
• Community Health
• Healthcare Management

Background:

• Community is conceptualized as a dynamic, relational process of "coming togetherness."
• Health is viewed as an ongoing, evolving process, drawing on Parse's "human becoming" and Newman's "health as expanding consciousness" theories.
• The context for community engagement is the current landscape of managed healthcare.

Purpose of the Study:

• To explicate the concept of community as a relational process.
• To explore the role of advanced practice nursing within this community process.
• To examine the focus of advanced practice nursing in community settings.

Main Methods:

• Theoretical analysis integrating Parse's and Newman's nursing theories.
• Conceptual exploration of community as process and health as process.
• Examination of advanced practice nursing's role within the nurse-person-community-health process.

Main Results:

• Community is understood as a continuous relational process, mirroring health as an expanding consciousness.
• Advanced practice nurses engage in a complex nurse-person-community-health process.
• The primary focus for advanced practice nursing in community is promoting health, wholeness, and quality of life.

Conclusions:

• Advanced practice nursing's presence and engagement are crucial in the community health process.
• The nurse-person-community-health process offers a framework for understanding nursing's role in community.
• Participating with presence is identified as a key nursing opportunity in community settings.