Primary Health Care Nursing

The Primary Health Care Strategy released in 2001 indicated that nurses were crucial to its implementation.

Primary Health Care Nurses practice in a variety of roles and settings. These practice settings include; practice nursing, community, nursing, public health nursing, occupational health, family planning, maori health provider, aged care as well as variety of non government organisations.

Marlborough is no different to anywhere else in New Zealand and is well represented across the variety of these practice settings. The strategy provided a new direction for primary health care.

By 2003 the Expert Advisory Group on Primary Health Care Nursing had created a framework for supporting and promoting primary health care nursing. The framework provided a definition of primary health care nursing underpinned by a set of goals.

Primary health care nurses were defined as registered nurses with knowledge and expertise in primary health care practice. They work autonomously and collaboratively to promote, improve, maintain and restore health in roles that encompass:

• Population health
• Community involvement
• Health promotion
• Illness and/or disease  prevention
• Wellness care
• First point of contact care
• Disease management across the life span  

Models of care are determined by setting, the ethnic and cultural groupings of communities. Practice is in partnership with individual, whanau, communities and populations to achieve the shared goals of health for all. Innovative models of nursing practice, governance, career development and aligning nursing practice with community need underpins primary nursing as we go forward.