Community Nurse

COMMUNITY NURSE The gradually shifting of health care from the acute to the non-acute setting is also changing some of the professional nurse's training. A number of colleges are integrating a more in depth training in community nursing. They are including skill, role, and competencies required to function as a community health Register Nurse (RN). Examples include an epidemiologist, case manager, coordinator of services provided to a group of patients, occupational health nurse, school nurse, visiting nurse, hospice nurse and others. Community nurses are specialized nurses who provide direct care to the clients and their families as they move among various service and providers outside of hospitals to prevent, minimize the progression of illness, and improving quality of life (Hinkle & Cheever, 2014).
These nurses need to have high critical thinking skills, and effectively functional ability to adapt for different health situations, since they have to independently make decisions within the nurse's scope of practice (Hinkle & Cheever, 2014). These specialized nurses must be skilled and familiar with the available resources in the community, the different services provided by local agencies to include the eligibility needed, and possible charges for these services. They are responsible for updating the client and families about the different community resources available to help meet their needs. These skills are different from those required in an acute care setting, and nurse must work with other health care team members to obtain this information for the client in need (Hinkle & Cheever,