Patronage Nurses: The Outreach Nursing System a Milestone of Health Promotion

Abstract

In the health systems of countries of South-East Europe, the public health services have maybe suffered the most during the last fifteen years, with depreciated infrastructure and in some cases outmoded public health interventions. Recent positive trend has been visible in rehabilitation and reinforcement of population based public health interventions. Health staff profile likely best to accomplish function of the community based health education and health promotion are nurses. The patronage outreach nurses have received comprehensive training on methodology and techniques of adult-learning. They have knowledge of epidemiology, community assessment, programme planning and evaluation, biostatistics, research, nursing theory, public health administration and history and politics. They are the milestone in achieving the main principles of community health with its’ participatory process to improve population health and the health promotion empowerment process to reduce social inequalities in health. Additionally, their scope of work helps in readdressing the injustice in health, identifies a complex and mutually interrelated problems that involves individuals, family and community and link them with the local culture, wider policy decisions, economic and socio-cultural forces.