The Role of Nursing in Public Health and Health Promotion – Presentation of a Systematic Approach

Public health and nursing meet mainly in the fields of care managing processes and health promotion. Since there is a new development of Public Health in the German speaking countries also the role of nurses in health education and health promotion has become more important. But traditional fields and new conceptions of public health nursing are still unmethodical. I present a systematic approach of different fields and different strategies of health promotion in nursing which has to be discussed further on. Health promotion in nursing is differentiated in a behavioural approach (empowerment of patients on different levels of nursing) and an approach which focuses on the conditions for health, mainly those for better social support, for better health in the community and in other settings.