uations, the only health care available to the indigent is that provided by nurse practioners working in community settings or programs.
Given the comprehensive scope of services provided to indigent clients by nurse practioners in community settings/programs, it seems reasonable to state that homeless people may actually feel more satisfied with services provided to them by nurse practioners than those provided to them by physicians. There have been virtually no studies that have examined for this possibility; therefore, the proposed research seeks to expand the existing knowledge base on health care for the indigent by examining whether a sample of homeless clients prefer and/or are more satisfied with health care received from nurse practioners than health care received from physicians.
What is the role of the nurse practioner in providing health care services to the indigent? According to Sebastian (1994), the role is increasingly being expanded upon in the 1990s with nurse practioners offering multiple services to their homeless clients. In many cases, community health nurses will collaborate
to establish clinics for the homeless.
For example, Testani-Dufour, Green, Green and Carter (1996) have discussed the role of nurse practioners and nurse managers in addressing the health care needs of the homeless. According to the authors, clinics that are managed and staffed primary by nurses can be one of the most cost effective, high quality means of addressing the health care needs of homeless and indigent populations. The key to providing these services is said to be involvement of community members and especially community leaders in the establishment of such a clinic.
In other cases, physicians (commonly residents) will work together with community health nurses to provide services to the indigent. In this regard, Fiore (1995) has discussed a medical clinic organized in a homeless shelter to help address the hea...