The Impact of Engaging People and Students in the Rural Community and Family Health Nursing Care

Abstract

Introduction: Most community nurses focus more on curative aspect rather than health promotion and disease prevention, thus weakening the primary health care and lessen the engagement with the community. Providing a learning environment that can support professional growth of nurses through engagement with local communities and education institution would strengthen the primary health care in the community. However, this poses challenges due to traditional mindset of nurses towards primary health care. This study aimed to identify the impact of engaging people and nursing students in the community and family health nursing care. Methods: This study used a two cycle participatory action research from February to June 2017 in the Cipacing village, West Java Indonesia. The participants included 68 nursing students who were placed in collaboration with local primary health service, 136 families that were recruited from 2,903 households in the community. The family independency level was measured based on the family independency instrument from the Ministry of Health Indonesia. Descriptive statistics and content analysis were used for data analysis. Results: The results showed that engaging people and nursing students in the community and family health nursing care has given impact to improve the independency level of the families to perform health promotion and disease prevention (93%) and increase the participation rate of the community to preventing disease and promoting their health. Discussion: People as resources need to be empowered, engaged, and involved in the production of healthcare in equal and reciprocal relationships between health professionals and people who use the service. We argue that engaging people and nursing students in the community and family health nursing care will enhance the capacity of families and people in the community to maintain their health, as well as improve the capacity of students to provide people centred care. Conclusion: Engaging people and nursing students in the community and family health nursing care can give positive impact for the health outcomes in the community. Lesson Learned: Collaboration between education and health sectors will provide a learning environment that can support professional growth of nurses, as well as produce the best outcomes for families and the community. Limitations: Even though the results could not be generalised, the findings are likely to be applicable within similar settings. Suggestions for Future Research: Further research is needed to examine the effectiveness of students and community engagement towards the health outcomes of people in the community using randomised clinical trial.