Nursing centers and health promotion: A federal vantage point

For more than 50 years, the Division of Nursing has supported innovative in itiatives to improve nursing practice, increase the knowledge and skills of nursing personnel, enhance their effectiveness in the delivery of health c are across health care settings, and increase the number of qualified profe ssional nurses. Nursing centers are funded through Special Project Grants a nd Contracts authorized under section 820 (b) of the Public Health Service Act. The grants are targeted to establish or expand nursing centers for the purpose of demonstrating methods to improve access to primary health care in medically underserved communities. Nursing centers provide faculty, staf f, and students with unique opportunities to plan, implement, and evaluate nursing services, including primary health care and health promotion servic es that draw on the health promotion knowledge and skills integrated throug hout didactic and clinical courses. Each project demonstrates the relations hip of nursing center services to Healthy People 2000 objectives. The scope of services available through nursing centers addresses diverse needs of d iverse populations across the entire life span. This article describes the success of nursing centers as models of population-based, nurse practice ar rangements in communities where faculty and staff provide students with opp ortunities to incorporate such concepts as health promotion, public health, community, and advanced practice in preparation for expanded roles in meet ing unmet health care needs outside of hospitals.