The state and local agencies affiliated with governmental bodies are not the only resources for public health care. This section of the report discusses four alternative providers of health services. These are: (1) State-Funded Visiting Nurse Agencies; (2) Company Programs; (3) Community-Based hospitals; and (4) Educational programs.
State-Funded Visiting Nurse Agencies
Visiting Nurse agencies are part of the home health care system. This system includes an arrangement of health-related services provided to people in their place of residence (Warhola, 1980).
Services provided by the home health care system include a combination of medical and social activities and tasks that are performed for patients. These activities and task vary greatly from visiting nurse association to visiting nurse association but include such things as changing dressings, monitoring medications, assisting patients to bath and dress, changing bed linens, and supplying physical, speech and occupational therapy.
Regarding visiting nurse agencies, Raffell and Raffell (1994) report that:
A visiting nurse association (VNA) is one type of home health service in which a nurse, usually a nurse with public health training, visits a patient's home to provide some type of nursing service, for example to change a dressing or give an injection. Many of these VNAs also provide physical therapy and speech therapy by qualified personnel. (Raffell & Raffell, 1994, p.187)
In Martin and Scheet's (1994) discussion of visiting nurse agencies, the authors state that the model of an effective VNA is the Visiting Nurse Association of Omaha, Nebraska which developed a valid and reliable classification system of client problems in the community health setting. The Omaha Problem Classification Scheme was designed to follow taxonomic principles and is unique in that it is the only nursing diagnosis and classification system developed inductively by practicing co...