2019 Volume 22 Issue 3 Pages 6-16
Purpose: The purpose of the study was to establish a method of public health nurses’ practice for promoting cooperation of incomers and existing inhabitants in solving health problems in a community.
Method: The case examined in the study was one in which a public health nurse promoted the cooperation of incomers and existing inhabitants for solving regional health problems in a community of a cottage area where the ratio of incomers among elderly people was large. The method of the study consisted of interviews with the public health nurse. The object of the study was to elicit the process of practice of the public health nurse from the preparation to presentation. The whole process of the practice was then divided into a number of “methods” over a period of time. These elicited “methods” were then consolidated into several “stages” by making borders when the content of practice was changed.
Result: The whole process of the public nurse’s practice for 31 years was categorized into 33 “methods” and 5 “stages.” These “stages” were represented as “constant comprehension of elderly people’s lives in the community”, “recruiting of a person who might act as a key member of a community organization”, “cultivation of relationships among people who joined the community organization”, “support in outreach to other people before self-organization of the community organization”, and “support in outreach to other people after self-organization of the community organization” over time.
Discussion: These 5 “stages” were then generalized, and categorized into 4 “stages” from the point of view of promoting cooperation among incomers and existing inhabitants. The five “stages” were represented as “clarification of regional health problems as to incomers and existing inhabitants”, “recruit of a person from incomers and existing inhabitants for solution of regional health problems, and request for cooperation to the related organizations”, “cultivation of relationships between incomers and existing inhabitants for making a community organization which could be a core for solution of regional health problems” and “support in outreach to other people by incomers and existing inhabitants for solution of regional health problems which was the common concern to be solved for incomers and existing inhabitants.”
