Attention foci in community health nursing and community empowerment: a qualitative study

Background: Community empowerment constitutes a specific skill of the nurse specialist in community nursing and must be employed in their clinical decision-making. Objectives: To identify the attention foci of nurses who develop community intervention, considering the community as a care unit. Methodology: Qualitative study through focus group technique. Data were analyzed using content analysis technique. The categories system was based on the Continuous Community Empowerment Model of Laverack (2005). A categories system for data analysis was established, based on the foci of the International Classification for Nursing Practice (version 2.0). Results: A main nursing focus associated with community empowerment was identified (community management) and 3 foci integrated as diagnostic dimensions of the main focus (community participation, community process, and community leadership). Conclusion: Attention areas that promote nurses’ clinical decision-making associated with community empowerment were identified. There are foci in community health nursing related to community empowerment, which provide an identity process based on the competences of this specialty area.