Meanings of community in a community health center

As health care organizations make communities the targets for their interve ntions, connections between "community" as theory for practice and communit y as setting for practice require examination. This study's purpose was to explore meanings given to community in a newly formed community health cent er, with particular emphasis on the relationship among women, community, an d health. Using interpretive and emancipatory methodologies, interviews wer e conducted with clinic administrators and staff, and women who used the cl inic. Data analysis revealed discrepancies in meanings of community. Clinic personnel referred to community as the target for their services, while cl inic users spoke about community as the process that made feeling connected with others possible. Health center staff and administrators described the community they were serving as having limited economic, educational, physi cal, and psychological resources and saw little which could be labeled a co mmunity strength. Health center users however, spoke primarily of their abi lities to support each other. These contradictory understandings of the mea ning of community rendered different expectations regarding health care ser vices. Meanings given to community may de-personalize, homogenize, and obje ctify, and ultimately distance nursing from those intended to be served.