Question

Describe the three components of the Intervention Wheel. How do the components relate to each other? Explain how you can apply them to your clinical practice.

Answer 1

The intervention wheel was before known as the Public Health Intervention (PHI) Model. It was introduced in 1998 by the Minneso Department of Health, Section of Public Health Nursing.

The Three component of Intervention Wheel are

1.Population based- Interventions are focused on the entire population irrespective of actual or potential heath concern and not limited to only to those who are rich, vulnerable or seeking medical aid. Emphasis is made on health promotion and prevention at different levels(primary, secondary and tertiary) and at multiple levels of practices.

2. Three level of practices(Community, systems and individual/family)- Public health nursing intervenes  with the communities , the system as well as the individual and family together. All the three level of practices are considered equally important . Intervention at one level contribute to the whole population health. community-focused practice is directed towards the whole population within the community which helps in changing the attitudes, norms,behaviour and bring awareness to the community. Individual - based focused is directed to the individual alone oe tigether with the family members. It brings changes in the attitudes, knowledge, belief , practices and behaviour of individuals and family. System- focused practices is focused on the system which impact the health of the community, family and individuals. Law, policies organization has a great impact on the community health. by changing the system it can result in an effective impact on the population.

3. 17 public health interventions- the intervention wheel has 17 interventions namely:

surveillance, disease and other health event investigaton,outreach,screening,case finding,referral and followup,case management, delegated functions,health teaching, counselling and consultation,collaboration,coalition building and community organization, advocacy, social marketing and policy development and enforcement.

The three components of intervention wheel are related: The first component of the intervention wheel is focused on population base practice, the second component is based on community, individual and family. the third component are the interventions. Population based interventions can be successful only when the community , individual as well as family are taken care of and place equal emphasis in health care , inturns community, individual and family health contributes to the health of the whole population . All the interventions are application in all the leevel of practices.

Application of intervention wheel to clinical practice:

• Effective utilization of intervention time
• apply best practices for planning and evaluating public health nursing intervention
• the interventions should be used when strategies are not going as plan or expected
• may sure that all thre levle of interventions are considered during planning
• examine the scope of an agency practice
• orient the newly join staff about the intervention wheel
• enchance staff intervention skills
• determine the changes that is needed to be evaluated
• use evidence base to support practices.

The public health nurse can use the intervention wheel when working in the homes, schools, clinics,community, shelters etc when dealing with the whole community , individual and family and the system that affects the population health by using the sets of interventions to meet their goals for the promotion of health.