Roles of Professional Nurses on Community Strengthening to Become a Healthy Sub-District

Abstract

Community strength is fundamental part of the country development. Community strengths built on community member participation and ownership, their supports for each member, and collaborations in problem solving. Community members learn together to improve their self- reliance capacities. Community strengthening process begins with people and infrastructure preparation, identifying communities concerns, creating choices of solutions, developing partnership within the community, and implementation of planned activities. Process of community strengthening implementation consists of perceptions, learning, and managements. A role of professional nurses regarding community strengthening is one in five of health promotion strategies included in Ottawa Charter for health promotion which is participations. The participations include people involvement, empowerment, information providing, life skill development for individuals, families, and communities It also concerns providing opportunities to involve people in decision makings and creating partnerships with other networks. Moreover, participation in research and application of research findings are encouraged. This article describes community strengths regarding concepts and domains of community strengths, process of community strengthening, roles and competencies of professional nurses for community strengthening, associations between community strengths and healthy sub-district, and local organizations in the community that undergone community strengthening process.