Population-based health promotion: a new agenda for public health nurses.

The role of Public Health Nurses (PHNs) involves participation in the development and implementation of population-based health promotion activities. To support encourage and facilitate such participation, the Nursing Division of the Hamilton-Wentworth Department of Public Health Services initiated a "New Agenda" that would help to realize these PHN roles. The New Agenda involved a commitment by the Nursing Division to support population-based health promotion activities by PHNs through changes in Nursing Division policies and practices, and the advancement of a consensus among PHNs regarding the practice of population-based health promotion. A series of four workshops were designed and introduced to ensure that structural barriers to developing PHN roles were eliminated. PHNs stated they achieved role clarification and role acceptance through the New Agenda interventions.