[img_inline align=”right” src=”http://padnws01.mcmaster.ca/images/nursingconf08.jpg” caption=”Decision makers and researchers gathered at McMaster last week to discuss issues facing community and public health nursing. Photo by Susan Bubak.”]Last week, McMaster University hosted a meeting of high-level decision makers and researchers to discuss emerging issues affecting community and public health nursing.

“This was a seminal meeting to further define issues in community and public health practice,” said Dr. Andrea Baumann, director, Nursing Health Services Research Unit (McMaster site). “The preliminary findings presented were both informative and exciting and set the stage for informed policy decion-making.”

The Nursing Health Services Research Unit (McMaster site) in collaboration with the Canadian Health Services Research Foundation and the Public Health Agency of Canada is conducting a three-year study on workforce issues associated with community health nursing.

The meeting was chaired by Dr. David Mowat, medical officer of health, Peel Region and included the executive director of the Office of Nursing Policy, Health Canada, and other senior policy makers and researchers from across Canada. The focus of the discussion was analysis of preliminary research findings.

Preliminary analysis of 6,700 responses to a questionnaire distributed across Canada in 2007 to community health nurses (CHNs) found that time, money and access to learning resources should be improved to support CHN practice. The respondents also indicated that improved community resources and provincially-mandated policy about community and public health programs would help them to work more effectively with their clients.

A seminar entitled Practice and Education: A Lens into the Future of Community and Public Health was designed to inform researchers about policy and education issues.

A panel discussion featured Dr. Marlene Smadu, president, Canadian Nurses Association; Claire Betker, president, Community Health Nurses Association of Canada; and Dr. Lynnette Leeseberg Stamler, president-elect, Canadian Association of Schools of Nursing. The discussion was chaired by Dr. Andrea Baumann (PhD), director, Nursing Health Services Research Unit (McMaster site).

The speakers emphasized the importance of planning now for the growing demand for community health nurses by enhancing the public health and community component of curricula and developing community and public health leadership skills.

About 17 per cent (43,028) of Canada's 251,675 nurses work in the community. They are employed in home care, public health, doctors' offices, community centres, community mental health and other community agencies.

“This workforce profile paints a picture that is, at best, a mixed one,” said Baumann. “While there has been a replenishing of the numbers of nurses, serious workforce issues remain.”

Currently, only about half of the community health nursing workforce has full-time employment.