College Health: A Nursing Perspective

The evolution of nursing practice and the nursing profession in college health is reviewed from three perspectives: contributions to the field, the emergence of college health nursing as a certified subspecialty, and the nature of historical and contemporary healthcare reforms. The standards that are likely to be established for the education and training of future college health nurses are described, as are the functional responsibilities of the role, the organizational structure in which college health nursing is best provided, and the interprofessional climate that would optimize nursing's potential contributions to college health. The author notes areas of college health nursing practice that would benefit from increased attention and concludes that college health nurses are ideally equipped to serve students (and others) in the emerging healthcare environment, independent of whether campus-controlled health services and programs endure.