Did the Structure of Work in the Public Health Nurse Service of the Republic of Croatia is Changing in the Period 1995 - 2012?

Abstract

Public health nurse in Croatia (PHN) have been for a decades a member of the family doctors (FDs) team,  providing multifunctional, polyvalent, scope of activities including health promotion, prevention, as well as part of the treatment for the inhabitants from defined catchment’s area. The main aim of the study was to investigate what are the trends in the number and structure of PHN visits, from 1996 to 2012. The main source was Croatian Health Service Yearbooks. The results strongly indicates that they are overloaded by the number of visits, especially to the chronic patients. While mothers and new borne children are in the PHN care, a pregnant women and small children are rather neglected. Because of different working conditions and differences in the population needs, it will be worthy to take the reconsiderations of the standard.