2021 Volume 24 Issue 3 Pages 4-12
Purpose: This study investigates the realities and activities of public health nurses in small municipalities as they pursue interdepartmental community health actions to satisfy residents’ needs.
Method: Using a qualitative and descriptive design, individual semi-structured interviews of public health nurses were conducted to acquire information on their experiences in interdepartmental community health activities in the last three years. The participants included four public health nurses in small municipalities where public health nurses supervisors are not assigned.
Results: The activity contents of the 4 public health nurses were extracted using 42 codes and classified into 26 subcategories, 15 categories, and 4 core categories. The core categories that emerged from the data were as follows: “sharing values with other personnel,” “maintaining relationships and requiring others to cooperate and play an important role,” “making full use of communication methods and opportunities without the role or position of a public health nurse supervisor” and “producing interdepartmental activities without a public health nurse supervisors where one’s superior or superintendent department exercised leadership.”
Discussion: A lack of public health nurses supervisors who coordinate interdepartmental community health activity is a problem in small municipalities. Public health nurses who do not hold the position of supervisors should promote interdepartmental community health activities through strategic activities based on collaboration between departments, such as coordinating and deciding the order and timing of discussions with bosses and working staff.
