Communicating public health to midwives: Promoting a population-based approach to primary care for women
✍ Scribed by Lisa L. Paine
- Publisher
- Elsevier Science
- Year
- 1997
- Weight
- 312 KB
- Volume
- 42
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0091-2182
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
✦ Synopsis
Midwifery and public health are so intrinsically intertwined that practitioners of either group often are unaware of the professional ties that they share. It was this realization, and an understanding of the increasing importance of interdisciplinary collaboration, that prompted the Journal of Nurse-Midwifery (JNM), in collaboration with the Boston University School of Public Health, to dedicate this home study program (HSP) to a public health perspective on Primary Care for Women.
In the first editorial of this three-part series on Primary Care for Women, Williams pointed out that midwives have inherited a rich legacy with roots closely bound to a public health agenda, and she urged that they not abandon that inheritance (1). In the same issue, Paine et al (2) cited the midwifery services at the Frontier Nursing Service in Kentucky, the Maternity Center Association in New York, and La Casita in New Mexico as just three historical examples of settings in which primary care and public health services were integral to the practice of midwifery. After reading the 1995 HSP on Primary Care for Women, midwives may have questioned the significance of Williams' statements and Paine's examples and asked themselves "What is a public health agenda?" or "How do I apply these historical examples of a public health legacy to my current practice?" As one means of answering these important questions, JNM has focused this HSP on the public health perspective inherent in the provision of primary care for women and the importance of working with public health colleagues to improve the health and well-being of the population.
Nineteen ninety-seven marks the 125th anniversary of the American Public Health Association (APHA), the oldest and largest organization of public health profes