Looking Through a Community Lens: Innovative Ways to Integrate Community Health Nursing Competencies into All Settings of Care By: Jacqueline Kayler Debrew, PhD, APRN, BC and Jayne Lutz, MS, PHCNS-BC, RN University of North Carolina at Greensboro, School of Nursing, Greensboro, North Carolina, USA Address correspondence to Jacqueline DeBrew, UNCG School of Nursing, P. O. Box 26170, Moore Building 415, Greensboro, NC 27402. E-mail: jkdebrew@uncg.edu DeBrew, J. K., & Lutz, J. (January 01, 2010). Looking Through a Community Lens: Innovative Ways to Integrate Community Health Nursing Competencies into All Settings of Care. Issues in Mental Health Nursing, 31, 1, 64-67. Made available courtesy of Informa Healthcare: http://informahealthcare.com/doi/full/10.3109/01612840903384016 ***Reprinted with permission. No further reproduction is authorized without written permission from the Informa Healthcare. This version of the document is not the version of record. Figures and/or pictures may be missing from this format of the document.*** Article: Edited by Mona M. Shattell, PhD, RN University of North Carolina at Greensboro, School of Nursing, Greensboro, North Carolina, USA Community nursing is not a new. In fact, nursing practice in the home and community is the oldest form of nursing care. Yet, nursing education's move to the university from hospital-based programs coupled with advances in health care technology located in hospitals has contributed to community nursing being overshadowed by the perceived need for nursing students to spend more clinical time in an acute-care setting. In the 1980s, the introduction of Diagnostic Related Groups (DRGs) in the acute care setting resulted in community nursing being viewed as a vital part of the healthcare continuum. Nonetheless, in today's schools of nursing, community health nursing is viewed by some faculty members as a practice that takes place solely outside the walls of the hospital and one that requires less nursing skill and knowledge—or at least less than a student needs to be successful on the National Council Licensure (NCLEX) licensure examination. Nursing students will occasionally say community health nursing is a waste of time since “it is not even on the Boards.” This viewpoint fails to recognize the competencies of nursing practice in the community and sets the stage for a us-versus-them attitude between