Strengthening the Public Health Nursing Workforce

 

FPHI continues to concentrate on public health nursing workforce issues and has collaborated with academic, business, community, and public health partners.  FPHI has developed five continuing education courses that were offered at no-cost to public health nurses on the FPHI website, and they were approved for nursing continuing education credits in both Florida and Alabama.  The course topics were developed in collaboration with the Florida Department of Health and include Bio-preparedness, Chronic Disease Management, Protecting Your Nursing License, Evidence-Based Programs, and Pharmaceutical Drug Update.  

FPHI is currently completing a three-year grant program funded by the Palm Healthcare Foundation to identify public health nursing workforce needs.  The project focuses on the quantification of Palm Beach County nursing workforce needs, and as a result, making a recommendation of a desired staffing pattern/number of full time equivalents (FTEs).  Project outcomes will be evaluated and reported, and technical assistance provided so that these identified strategies may be implemented and adapted in other counties and states.  In 2011, additional counties in Florida will be chosen as pilot projects to evaluate program modeling.