Community Preventive Services: Interventions that provide or increase the provision of preventive services such as screening, education, counseling, or other programs to groups of people, in community settings, healthcare systems, or other practice environments (adapted from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2009). See also Clinical Preventive Services.

Culturally Responsive: Culturally responsive refers to being cognizant of patients’ norms, beliefs, language, and behaviors that not only shape the meaning of their health but also their health-seeking and health-related behaviors. The constructs reinforce the idea that each practitioner should be engaged continuously in self reflection about their own personal beliefs, norms, behaviors and language and how together they guide their perceptions, beliefs, and interactions with patients. The culturally responsive practitioner focuses on the importance of building upon each patient’s personal strengths as well as available resource and supports which provide the foundational underpinning of these respective strengths. The culturally responsive practitioner also engages in a dynamic, respectful, and reciprocal dialogue with each person irrespective of their race, ethnicity, gender, social position, sexual orientation, immigration status, and educational level (Ring et al, 2009).

Delivery: The planning, management, and evaluation of evidence-based practice and clinical care across healthcare settings.

Direct Care/ Indirect Care:

Direct care refers to nursing care provided to individuals or families that is intended to achieve specific health goals or achieve selected health outcomes. Direct care may be provided in a wide range of settings, including acute and critical care, long term care, home health, community-based settings, and educational settings (AACN, 2004, 2006; Suby, 2009; Upenieks, Akhavan, Kotlerman et al., 2007).

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Indirect care refers to nursing decisions, actions, or interventions that are provided through or on behalf of individuals, families, or groups. These decisions or interventions create the conditions under which nursing care or self care may occur. Nurses might use administrative decisions, population or aggregate health planning, or policy development to affect health outcomes in this way. Nurses who function in administrative capacities are responsible for direct care provided by other nurses. Their administrative decisions create the conditions under which direct care is provided. Public health nurses organize care for populations or aggregates to create the conditions under which care and improved health outcomes are more likely. Health policies create broad scale conditions for delivery of nursing and health care (AACN, 2004, 2006; Suby, 2009; Upenieks, Akhavan, Kotlerman et al., 2007).