title: Applying critical theories to nursing in communities.
abstract: Public health realities in the United States indicate that unsafe physical surroundings, oppressive social arrangements, economic impoverishment, and political disenfranchisement threaten the safety and well-being of countless aggregates. To affect change in health-damaging conditions, nurses are urged to join with vulnerable groups, working together to expose oppressive situations and take action. As a guide for such emancipatory practice, the use of critical theories as the conceptual basis for community health nursing is advocated.
authors.affiliation: Department of Mental Health, Community, and Administrative Nursing, University of California, San Francisco School of Nursing.
authors.forename: P E
authors.initials: PE
authors.lastname: Stevens
authors.forename: J M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Hall
mesh_terms: D003152:Community Health Nursing / Q000379:methods / Q000458:organization & administration / Q000592:standards*; D003256:Community Participation; D005610:Freedom; D006801:Humans; D009742:Nursing Theory; D011057:Politics; D011209:Power, Psychological; D011634:Public Health / Q000639:trends; D012922:Social Change; D012924:Social Conditions