it is very interesting topic and also important for exams . students read this and get knowledge and be ready for exams.

1. ROLES AND GENERAL
FUNCTIONS OF COMMUNITY
HEALTH NURSE
PIYUSH PARASHAR
B.SC (HONS.) NURSING

2. INTRODUCTION
• A nurse is a vital member of the health team. Without nurse, healthcare
system is handicapped to deliver its services to people in various settings.
• Nurses perform a variety of roles in any of the settings where they work. But
the nature and extent of work depends upon her own perception of her roles,
perception of roles by others, her designation and job description, the policies
of health agency.

3. INTRODUCTION
• A community health nurse is prepared to provide generalized healthcare
services to meet the health and nursing needs of individual, families, groups
and people at large.
• She provides services at homes, clinics, schools, work places etc.
• With experience and continuing education she functions in the field of
administration and supervision, education and research, she can also function
in various specialized programmes.

4. ROLES AND RELATED FUNCTIONS
• DEFINITION: The role of a nurse refers to what is expected of a nurse in any setting and
situation whereas functions refer to the activities that will be performed for a particular
role.
• Nursing care is a caring profession.
• Nurses provide care when the individual is sick or well and which he or she is not able to do
for himself or herself or which other members in the family are also not able to do for him
or her.
• The reasons for this inability may be several in relation to human biology, lifestyle,
environment and resources.
• There are variety of roles which are performed by a community health nurse in various
settings like health centres, clinics, homes, schools, work place, etc.

5. CARE PROVIDER
• The nurse working in the community provides care to the individual, family, group of people
like school children, antenatal and postnatal mothers, the elderly and community at large.
• Care is given not only during sickness but also when people are well.
• Community health nurse provides care to all irrespective of their socio- economic status etc.
But it is seen most of the time care is provided to poor families because it is they who have
multi- health problems. But at the same time, others should not be neglected as they too
need help and guidance to take care of their health needs.
• The community health nurse does all those things which the individual, family, group or
community cannot do for themselves.

6. CARE PROVIDER
• As she gives care, she educates the members of family, community people remove their barriers. Thus
all the three types of nursing intervention, i.e. supplemental, developmental and facilitative are applied
appropriately to help them to be independent in making their own health decisions and in taking care
of their health.
• The care, which the community health nurse providers, may be rendered by her auxiliary under her
supervision and guidance.
• She along with the members and auxiliary nurse midwife makes health and nursing care plan that
includes interventions for whole family.
• Planning is done on the basis of the assessment of family’s health problems/ needs, resources and
competencies.
• The community health nurse helps family to promote their health by adopting healthy life style, modify
their environment and make use of health and allied resources.

7. HEALTH EDUCATOR

8. • Health education is one of the major functions of the community health nurse. It is part and parcel of
community health nurse.
• Whatever care the community health nurse provides to an individual, a family, group or community she
provides by educating them.
• She educates them to take care of themselves, to prevent diseases, to promote, protect and maintain
their health.
• Through health education she helps people to develop their competencies in order to deal with their
health problems/ health needs, reduce stress, change/ modify health attitude and health behavior to
promote, regain and maintain health.

9. HEALTH PROVIDER
• The community health nurse conducts education at the individual, family,
group and community level using different methods and media.
• Health education is planned as part of family care and is implemented
according to plan.
• Health education may also be spontaneous or incidental and casual

10. AN ADVOCATE

11. AN ADVOCATE
• An advocate is someone who speaks in favor of policies, etc. or who speaks/ pleads for those who can
not speak/ plead for themselves.
• The community health nurse in providing care to clients takes the role of an advocate as she performs
implied functions.
• She educates her clients about the services which are available to them, what services they can avail,
where and how they can obtain these services.
• She also pleads for them to the physician if they are experiencing any difficulty with the kind of
treatment.
• She approaches the sanitarian if there is any problem of sanitation in the village, neighbourhood ,
school etc.

12. AN ADVOCATE
• She also stands between the health administrator and her client.
• She seeks the attention of the administrator to unmet health problems/ health needs, inadequacy of
services etc.
• She also tries to explain to her clients about the services which are planned and rendered,
administrative limitations, difficulties, the efforts which are being taken to improve the services, the co-
operation and contributions which are expected from them.
• In order to perform this role, the community health nurse needs to be sensitive, observant, assertive,
resourceful, should have the ability to communicate, convince and must be willing to take the risk for
the client.

13. COUNSELLOR

14. COUNSELLOR
• The community health nurse while providing services to her clients makes use of counselling process in
helping them to find appropriate solutions to their problems.
• As a counsellor, the community health nurse helps her clients to recognize and understand their
problems to be solved, identify alternative solutions within the resources and implement the solutions
which are feasible and acceptable.
• As a counsellor, she helps her clients learn to make use of problem- solving process and make decisions
to solve their problems.
• Counselling process is a part and parcel of community health nursing process.

15. RESOURCEFUL

16. RESOURCEFUL
• The community health nurse in providing community health nursing services to individuals, families,
groups and community at large, needs to make use of resources in terms of money, manpower, material
and other agencies which are available in the community.
• This is necessary because the community health nurse and the clients may not have all the resources of
their own to meet their health needs.
• She needs to explore the various resources in her community setting, find out their working conditions
and establish working relationship and accordingly refer and direct her clients to use the resources as
per their needs.
• She follows them up to get the feedback and take further action.

17. CHANGE AGENT

18. CHANGE AGENT
• The community health nurse by virtue of her expertise in the
field of community health nursing, is able to hone abilities and
influence change in health behavior by the motivation of an
individual, a family and community to promote, protect, regain
and maintain their health.
• When the goal is for “ Health for All” and “All For Health”, it
becomes all the more important that the community health
nurse helps her clients to develop abilities to make their own
health decisions, take appropriate healthcare actions for
themselves and cope with their health problems and stress.

19. CHANGE AGENT
• In performing these functions, she tries to overcome barriers which may be logistical, policy decisions,
attitudinal etc.
• She tries to mobilize resources, reschedule the services, have dialogue with the authority about unmet
health needs/ problems etc.

20. SENSITIVE OBSERVER

21. SENSITIVE OBSERVER
• The community health nurse is responsive to change in her clients, their surroundings and make note of
any untoward change which threatens to cause any health problems or any unusual occurrence of any
disease or stress.
• Accordingly, she takes further action like notifications to health authority, working within the family and
community to plan actions to be implemented and implement those actions and watch for results, etc.

22. ADVISER

23. ADVISER
• There are some practical situations, which require regular actions to be taken by her clients, e.g.,
regular intake of iron folic acid tablets, balanced diet, etc. by the antenatal mothers.
• The advice is usually regarded, accepted and implemented by her clients because they usually have
faith , confidence and trust in her because of her competencies, concern and interest in their health
matters.

24. MANAGER

25. MANAGER
• The community health nurse while giving services in various settings and situations performs
managerial functions.
• She studies the entire situation, makes assessment of needs and sources, plans and organizes to meet
the needs; gives direction, guidance and co- ordinates to implement the plan to meet the needs.
• For managing community health services, she works in a team with other professionals.

26. PLANNER ROLE:
• Planner Role: As manager of nursing care service the community health nurse, first and foremost draws
out detailed need- based objective- oriented plan.
• She works out the plan working with the client, auxiliary nurse- midwife or any other nursing member.
• She also consults and collaborates with other team members.

27. ORGANIZER ROLE:
• Once the plan is ready, she takes up the role of a organizer i.e. she structures the functioning of
personnel to perform the activities in accordance of the plan smoothly.
• Once it is planned to provide services to antenatal mother in the antenatal clinic then organizing
function of the community health nurse manager implies that she makes it sure that all the equipment
and supplies are there and properly placed and these are in the working order, required staff are there,
each one has designated responsibilities.

28. DIRECTOR ROLE:
• As the work which is to be done is being organized, the community health nurse takes the director’s
role, i.e. she makes sure that it is being implemented.
• For that, she gives proper training instructions, which are necessary.
• She leads, supervises and guides the staff in doing assigned job.

29. CO-ORDINATOR ROLE:
• The co- ordinator role of a nurse manager implies bringing people and activities together so that they
may function in harmony to achieve the predetermined objectives.

30. LEADER

31. LEADER
• The community health nurse in providing comprehensive care to an individual, a family, group and
community at large; assumes leadership role.
• As a leader, she persuades and influences her clients to make decision regarding dealing with their
health problems and health aspects.
• She works closely with people in community efforts to understand and deal with their health problems
utilizing community resources and facilities available to them.

32. COLLABORATOR

33. COLLABORATOR
• The community health nurse does not work alone in any of the settings.
• She functions in collaboration with her clients and with the other members of the health team such as
doctor, health educator, sanitarian , multipurpose health worker etc.
• Every member in the health team has specific contributions to meet the common health objectives.
They all function together in cooperation with one another.
• They need to know one another’s role and responsibilities for their effective functioning as a team.
• It is very essential for community health nurse to know about the team members to communicate and
assert her contribution in the team.

34. RESEARCHER

35. RESEARCHER
• The community health nurse also performs the role of a researcher. Both research and nursing
processes are problem solving processes and follow a series of comparable steps.
• A nurse identifies a problem or a question, collects and analyzes data by a process of investigation,
selects alternative solutions and restart the process of investigation approach after she makes any
observation of any deficit, crisis situation or any threatening situation etc.
• The underlying facts are studied, analyzed, interpreted and solutions are found, implemented and
feedback is attained.
• In addition to everyday investigative approach, the community health nurse may also participate in
formal field studies and research projects.

36. GENERAL FUNCTIONS
OF COMMUNITY
HEALTH NURSE

37. • The community health nurse before beginning to provide services in any setting , e.g. , community,
family, school, etc. explores the situation, collects certain relevant information and analyses them,
identifies health needs and problems, makes nursing diagnosis, works out alternative actions,
implements the plan of action, evaluates the outcomes and plans further on the basis of feedback.
• She function in a team to make over all health plans and activities for community at large, different
population groups, etc. based on their identification health needs and health problems, works out
schedules and procedures for implementation, reporting and evaluation, etc.
• She also involves other nursing personnel and auxiliary nurse midwives who are working with her to
provide health services.

38. • She provides and promotes need- based comprehensive
nursing service to individuals and families.
• The services are rendered to promote and protect the health
of the members, to regain and maintain their health, to
prevent them from getting the disease.
• She tries to achieve these objectives by giving continuous
health teaching, guidance and support.
• The community health nurse provides care using alternative
methods. She may provide care either by herself or direct
and supervise auxiliary nurse midwife to give the care.

39. • The community health nurse provides supportive services to the physician in making diagnosis and
carrying medical treatment.
• The community health nurse while providing healthcare services to families, she helps them to improve
their environmental conditions, modify their life style affecting their health , strengthen their resources,
capacities and abilities; make psycho-social adjustments, etc.
• The community health nurse participates in the control and eradication activities of various
communicable diseases and non- communicable diseases. She conducts health education on various
aspects of healthful living, prevention and control.
• The community health nurse directs, guides and supervises auxiliary nurse midwives/ multi – purposes
health workers in delivering healthcare services to assigned community.
• The community health nurse co- ordinates the work of male and female health workers and other
personnel.

40. • The community health nurse as a member of health team plans, organizes educational program for the
community, organizes health camps etc.
• The community health nurse maintains health records, registers, prepare reports.
• The community health nurse contributes in the growth and development of knowledge and skills in
community health nursing. This is done by conducting field studies, research projects, participation in
research studies done by others .
• The community health nurse is responsible for the formal training of dais of villages under PHC/CHC.
• She involves ANM/MPH (F) in training of dais.

41. • With the introduction of multipurpose health workers scheme and primary healthcare approach, the
roles and functions of community health nurse have changed to a greater extent.
• Her main roles are to direct, guide , supervise , co- ordinate and ensure that proper and adequate care
is provided by the multipurpose health workers , i.e. by ANMs/ FHWs(F).
• Unfortunately, there is no provision for the post of the community health nurse in the healthcare
delivery system which was recommended by Bhore Committee in 1946. There is a post of Health
Supervisor (F) (HSF) which is filled by the existing Lady Health Visitors and by promoting experienced
ANMs/FHWs who have undergone a 6 month promotional course.