The Continuing Challenge: Nursing's Response to Primary Health Care

Abstract

An innovative project which aims to balance acute care and community health care in the clinical experience for students in a generic baccalaureate nursing program, is outlined. The ways in which nurses in community practice and academia can work together to ensure that primary health care (PHC) becomes a philosophy used for guiding nursing practice, is demonstrated. The aims of the project are to gather sufficient information on which to base curricula change to the undergraduate baccalaureate nursing program, as well as to assess the employment outcomes for this group of graduate nurses. The paper sets the context for the project by providing a brief historical review that highlights the relevance and necessity of PHC as a framework for nursing. The ways in which nurses in community practice and nurses in academia can work together to ensure that primary health care (PHC) becomes a philosophy used for guiding nursing practice is discussed. Through an innovative partnership between the School of Nursing, Flinders University of South Australia (FUSA) and Noarlunga Health Services, curriculum changes ensure that nursing students experience a balance of theory and practice in both the community and acute clinical fields, and that the curriculum is underpinned by PHC philosophy and principles.