The word community nursing comes from English and can also be called community health care or community medical care. According to the definition of American Nursing Association, community nursing is a comprehensive subject that combines public health and nursing theory to promote and maintain the health of community population. Community nursing takes health as the center, takes the community population as the object, and aims at promoting and maintaining the health of the community population. Public health is the science and art of preventing diseases, prolonging life, promoting physical and mental health and working efficiency.
The main purpose of public health is to prevent diseases and prolong life through organized social forces. Nursing is a comprehensive applied science in the medical field, which combines the theories of natural science and social science to form the theoretical system and technical operation of nursing: nursing is a process of diagnosing and dealing with existing or potential human health problems. With the change of nursing mode, the scope of nursing is gradually expanding.
Development process:
1. Home care stage: As early as before the middle of19th century, due to the lack of health service resources, the limitation of medical level and the blank of nursing specialty, most patients rested at home and were taken care of by housewives. Most of these housewives have neither education nor any nursing training, and can only give patients some basic life care. However, it is this simple and basic family nursing that laid the foundation for the birth of early nursing and community nursing.
2.Lot nursing stage: During the 50 years from the middle of19th century to the end of19th century, Britain and the United States set up lot nursing service one after another in order to let the poor and sick people enjoy basic nursing services and improve the health status of the poor people. Lot nursing in Britain and America mainly focuses on the care of poor patients at home, including guiding family members to care for patients. Most people engaged in lot nursing are volunteers, and a few are nurses.
3. Public health care stage: Since the end of 19, the service objects and contents of district nursing have been gradually broadened, and the service objects have been expanded from poor patients to residents in the district; Its service content has also expanded from simple medical care to preventive health care services. Among the public health care workers, the vast majority are public health nurses and a few are volunteers.
4. Community nursing stage: Since 1970s, more and more nurses around the world have provided medical care and public health care services for the purpose of promoting health and preventing diseases. Therefore, since the mid-1970s, the American Nursing Association has called this kind of service, which integrates medical care and public health care, community nursing, and those who engage in community nursing as community nurses.
From 65438 to 0978, the World Health Organization affirmed and supplemented it, demanding that community nursing become an "accessible, acceptable and affordable" health service for community residents. Since then, community nursing has developed rapidly in different ways all over the world, and the quality and quantity of community nurses in all countries have gradually grown.