The story of the Henry Street Consortium is...
by Linda Olson Keller, DNP, APHN-BC, RN, FAAN
The story of the Henry Street Consortium is about a group of public health nurses (PHNs) who overcame their differences to establish a powerful and influential collaboration. The Consortium comprises faculty representing schools that teach public health nursing, PHNs from local health departments providing clinical sites for nursing students, and a state health department PHN consultant.
The Consortium started with 13 health departments and five schools of nursing but has since expanded its membership. This partnership is unique not only because of the number of partners but also because of the nature of the collaboration—between health departments rural and urban, large and small, as well as between schools of nursing that normally compete for students and clinical sites. Though the Henry Street Consortium originated as part of a Minnesota Department of Health-Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) grant in 2001, this collaboration long ago earned its independence and set its own path.
The Consortium’s name, of course, is taken from Lillian Wald’s Henry Street Settlement—the birthplace of public health nursing in America. The beginning months of the Henry Street Consortium were challenging. Staff members from local health departments were intimidated by the credentials of the academic faculty, and the academic faculty members were hesitant to share their materials with faculty from other schools. The group worked hard to find common ground and sought a name with universal appeal. Henry Street was a good choice, not only because it gave everyone a common identity, but also because Lillian Wald was an ideal role model for the work that the Henry Street Consortium wanted to accomplish. The Consortium was committed to improving the health of its communities by redesigning the clinical experiences of public health nursing students.
The Henry Street Consortium proposed a bold goal—to prepare PHNs with the population-based competencies necessary for entry into public health nursing practice. Why did the Consortium develop new competencies when there were, in fact, numerous competencies? After reviewing existing competencies, Consortium members found that most competencies were written for expert PHNs. They wanted competencies appropriate for senior nursing students or new graduates. They wanted competencies that more clearly defined population-based practice. Henry Street Consortium members also wanted competencies that measured not only the distinctive skills and knowledge but also the characteristics and values that serve as the foundation of public health nursing practice. As Consortium members from academia and practice carefully listened to and learned from each other, they decided to develop a set of measurable, population-based public health nursing competencies for entry-level nurses that measured skills, knowledge, characteristics, and values. After much hard work, dozens of meetings, and endless drafts, they produced a set of competencies for novice-level senior nursing students or new graduates that is used by education and practice alike.
–Linda Olson Keller, DNP, APHN-BC, RN, FAAN Clinical Associate Professor, University of Minnesota School of Nursing Chair of the Quad Council of Public Health Nursing Organizations Robert Wood Johnson Executive Nurse Fellow, 2001 cohort
The Consortium started with 13 health departments and five schools of nursing but has since expanded its membership. This partnership is unique not only because of the number of partners but also because of the nature of the collaboration—between health departments rural and urban, large and small, as well as between schools of nursing that normally compete for students and clinical sites. Though the Henry Street Consortium originated as part of a Minnesota Department of Health-Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) grant in 2001, this collaboration long ago earned its independence and set its own path.
The Consortium’s name, of course, is taken from Lillian Wald’s Henry Street Settlement—the birthplace of public health nursing in America. The beginning months of the Henry Street Consortium were challenging. Staff members from local health departments were intimidated by the credentials of the academic faculty, and the academic faculty members were hesitant to share their materials with faculty from other schools. The group worked hard to find common ground and sought a name with universal appeal. Henry Street was a good choice, not only because it gave everyone a common identity, but also because Lillian Wald was an ideal role model for the work that the Henry Street Consortium wanted to accomplish. The Consortium was committed to improving the health of its communities by redesigning the clinical experiences of public health nursing students.
The Henry Street Consortium proposed a bold goal—to prepare PHNs with the population-based competencies necessary for entry into public health nursing practice. Why did the Consortium develop new competencies when there were, in fact, numerous competencies? After reviewing existing competencies, Consortium members found that most competencies were written for expert PHNs. They wanted competencies appropriate for senior nursing students or new graduates. They wanted competencies that more clearly defined population-based practice. Henry Street Consortium members also wanted competencies that measured not only the distinctive skills and knowledge but also the characteristics and values that serve as the foundation of public health nursing practice. As Consortium members from academia and practice carefully listened to and learned from each other, they decided to develop a set of measurable, population-based public health nursing competencies for entry-level nurses that measured skills, knowledge, characteristics, and values. After much hard work, dozens of meetings, and endless drafts, they produced a set of competencies for novice-level senior nursing students or new graduates that is used by education and practice alike.
–Linda Olson Keller, DNP, APHN-BC, RN, FAAN Clinical Associate Professor, University of Minnesota School of Nursing Chair of the Quad Council of Public Health Nursing Organizations Robert Wood Johnson Executive Nurse Fellow, 2001 cohort
Originally published in 2011 as part of the foreword for Population-Based Public Health Clinical Manual: The Henry Street Model for Nurses
Click here to read the entire foreward (on Nursing Knowledge International website)
Click here to read the entire foreward (on Nursing Knowledge International website)