Hi, I was working on a study recently that concluded that competencies, including the skill set required of community nurses, with specific reference to Public Health Nurses are: analytic assessment; cultural competence; programme planning; communication; collaboration; financial planning and management; leadership and systems thinking; policy development; and skill in public health science.  There is a lot of information on this area out there so you will need to do a systematic search of the literature.

Hi, thank you very much for your reply. Could you indicate me the link of the study you were working on, please?

I already made some research on this topic in pubmed and cinhal, but i found few studies about competence of district nurses in home care environment. So i would be interested to find out more rescources in order to understand better the right key words for a bibliographic reserch.

Hello,

I could not see exactly what you are wanting, but these might be worth looking through:

I have not read the full text to this, but it might be worth accessing:

Lin, C. J., Hsu, C. H., Li, T. C., Mathers, N., & Huang, Y. C. (2010). Measuring professional competency of public health nurses: development of a scale and psychometric evaluation. Journal of clinical nursing, 19(21‐22), 3161-3170.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/45639104_Measuring_professional_competency_of_public_health_nurses_Development_of_a_scale_and_psychometric_evaluation

The above is referenced by the following article:

Finnbakk, E., Wangensteen, S., Skovdahl, K., & Fagerström, L. (2015). The Professional Nurse Self-Assessment Scale: Psychometric testing in Norwegian long term and home care contexts. BMC nursing, 14(1), 1.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/284171767_The_Professional_Nurse_Self-Assessment_Scale_Psychometric_testing_in_Norwegian_long_term_and_home_care_contexts

Others that may be helpful include: 

Hasson, H., & Arnetz, J. E. (2008). Nursing staff competence, work strain, stress and satisfaction in elderly care: a comparison of home‐based care and nursing homes. Journal of clinical nursing, 17(4), 468-481.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/6475758

Wangensteen, S., Johansson, I. S., & Nordström, G. (2015). Nurse Competence Scale–Psychometric testing in a Norwegian context. Nurse education in practice, 15(1), 22-29.

This is the full text:

http://www.nurseeducationinpractice.com/article/S1471-5953(14)00162-0/fulltext?mobileUi=0

. . and this is the RG link:

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/268695378_Nurse_Competence_Scale_-_Psychometric_testing_in_a_Norwegian_context

Bing-Jonsson, P. C., Hofoss, D., Kirkevold, M., Bjørk, I. T., & Foss, C. (2016). Sufficient competence in community elderly care? Results from a competence measurement of nursing staff. BMC nursing, 15(1), 1.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/290508511_Sufficient_competence_in_community_elderly_care_Results_from_a_competence_measurement_of_nursing_staff

Very best wishes,

Mary

Article Nursing staff competence, work strain, stress and satisfacti...

Article Measuring professional competency of public health nurses: D...

Article Nurse Competence Scale – Psychometric testing in a Norwegian context

Article The Professional Nurse Self-Assessment Scale: Psychometric t...

Article Sufficient competence in community elderly care? Results fro...

I feel that this is a bit of a grey area and not really questioned enough in the community.

Most community nurses - at least when working for government, are at a Clinical Nurse level. It has been an assumption that once hired to work at this level, that they are able to work autonomously and that they have assessment skills that are at a significantly higher level then that of a hospital Registered nurse.

The community nurse has to not only be able to do a top to toe assessment with sometimes little to no equipment, but they are also assessing: social, environmental, emotional etc.. elements of a persons life/home etc..

A good community nurse has the ability to build rapport with a client, In a hospital environment, the client is there and knows that they are going to be questioned, tested etc but they are able to tell you what you want to hear and you have to take their answers on face value. When in a clients home, if rapport is built, you are able to see things beyond what has been verbalised to you. "Would you like me to make you a cup of tea" for example enables the community nurse to see if the client has food in their fridge, if it is in date and that they client is managing simple hydration/nutrition whilst not making them feel that you are intruding.

I have been a community nurse for approximately 15 years and hold a Masters in Gerontology and many certs in assessment, management, leadership etc. I feel that these can benefit the role but not a requirement to dictate a good nurse.

All mandatory training that is required by a hospital nurse is also required by the community nurse i.e patient handling, CPR etc but as far as assessment styles, it varies from clinician to client, every patient is different and assessment will vary accordingly. Community Nursing is about common sense and being able to read people.

Not sure if this helps you at all but this an area I am very passionate about.

Hi, thank you very much. these reply have been of  great help.

District Nurses in New Zealand have a national knowledge and skills programme that includes general nursing , IV /Hospital in the Home care for complex conditions, management of IV lines ( PICC, Central venous and portacaths); IDC and continence management, trache care, specialist wound care and leg ulcer management, and generalist palliative care. They are adept and holistic assessment , and liaise with other specialist services and  general practice teams . See link belowhttp://www.health.govt.nz/publication/district-nursing-service-development-new-zealand

You may find this link useful.

http://phabc.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/Community-Health-Nurses-Public-Health-Core-Competencies.pdf