Enumerating the Public Health Nursing Workforce


Description:

A strong public health infrastructure requires an adequate number and distribution of skilled public health nurses to effectively respond to current and emerging public health priorities and to assure the equitable delivery of essential public health services to the population. However, estimating the number of nurses who work in public health is contingent upon the operational definition employed and this definition can fluctuate by the source of the workforce data. The degree of variability in this regard remains uncertain. To address the need for more consistent public health nurse workforce measurement, this project used national data on the nursing workforce to evaluate how the size and composition of the public health nursing workforce varies across different operational definitions of public health nursing to develop distinct public health nursing profiles.

Lead Researchers: Paula Kett, PhD, MPH, RN & Betty Bekemeier, PhD, MPH, RN, FAAN

Contact Info: pmk@uw.edu & bettybek@uw.edu

 

Funder:

The Consortium for Workforce Research in Public Health (CWORPH) housed at the University of Minnesota, supported by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)

 

Status:

Complete

 

Publications/Presentations

Authors Title Type Date Documents/Media
Shahrir SF, Kett PM, Bekemeier B Public Health Nurses in an Emergency Response: Highlighting Proficiencies and Training Needs (Blog) PUBLICATION 04-17-2024
Blog
Kett PM, Shahrir SF, Bekemeier B Public Health Nurses’ Proficiencies and Training Needs in an Emergency Response: A Cross-Sectional Observational Study PUBLICATION 05-01-2024 Article
Kett PM, Bekemeier B Methodological Approaches to Enumerating the Public Health Nursing Workforce PRESENTATION 04-22-2026