Primary Health Care and partnerships: collaboration of a community agency, health department, and university nursing program

Health care reform proposals emphasize health care that is essential, practical, scientifically sound, coordinated, accessible, appropriately delivered, and affordable. One route to achievement of improved health outcomes within these parameters is the formation of partnerships. Partnerships adopting the philosophy and five principles of Primary Health Care (PHC) focus on health promotion and prevention of illness and disability, maximum community participation, accessibility to health and health services, interdisciplinary and intersectoral collaboration, and use of appropriate technologies such as resources and strategies. A community service agency serving a multicultural population initiated a partnership with a health department and a university undergraduate nursing program. The result was a preschool health fair and there were benefits for each partner-benefits which could not have been realized without the collaboration. The health fair partnership planning, implementation, and evaluation process was guided by a framework shaped by the philosophy and five principles of PHC. The educational process described can be applied to other learning experiences where the goal is to help students understand and apply the concepts of PHC, develop myriad nursing competencies, and form collaborative relationships with the community and health agencies. Community health care dilemmas and nursing education challenges can be successfully addressed when various disciplines and sectors form effective partnerships.