Backgroundpublic health nursing system, which is an accepted universal model for improvement of the community health, has not yet attained its rightful status in Iran. The present study was conducted to evaluate the perceptions of the pioneers of health care about the public health nursing and the roles that a public health nurse can play in Iran’s health system.Methodsthis is a qualitative study comprising nine participants purposively selected from nurses, nurse educators and physicians in Kashan University of Medical Sciences. Individual semi-structured interviews were used and qualitative content analysis method was used for data analysis.ResultsThree emerged main categories included perceptions about public health nursing, the roles of public health nurses, and barriers to establishing public health nursing. Additionally, five main roles were defined for a public health nurse. These involved the gatekeepers of the health system, direct continual care, health monitoring and disease prevention, health educator and health promoter. The disease oriented health system and the policy makers’ viewpoints were also proved to be the main barriers to establishing public health nursing.ConclusionThe study showed the positive attitudes of the front line health team about public health nursing. The five emerging roles, if established, may facilitate achieving the global objective of health for all. Efforts are needed to encourage policy-makers decide on this issue.

Knowing and applying the basic management functions of planning, organizing, staffing, directing, and controlling, as well as their permutations and combinations, are vital to effective delivery of public health services. Presently, graduate programs that prepare public health professionals neither emphasize teaching management theory, nor its application. This deficit puts those who become managers in public health and those they serve at a distinct disadvantage. This deficit can be remedied by enhanced teaching of management subjects.

Statement of the Problem: No published literature was found studying the people's reasons on why to choose or not to choose a dental care setting in south Iran, while understanding their attitude towards choosing their dental care center is consequential for planning a successful oral health care service system.Purpose: To determine the factors affecting how people of the city of Shiraz choose their dental health services.Materials and Method: A cross-sectional analytic study was designed. A self-administered questionnaire was produced, tested and then distributed among 570 multistage randomly selected parents of schoolchildren of the city of Shiraz. Independent t-test, paired t-test and Spearman correlation were used to analyze the factors influencing participants in choosing clinics for their esthetic and non-esthetic dental treatments.Results: 400 questionnaires were complete and analyzed. The recommendation from others was found to be the most encouraging factor to choose a dentist or a dental clinic. More importance was reported for various factors affecting participants' choice of dental clinic when seeking non-esthetic treatments, while recommendation and reputation of dentist/dental clinic played a vital role in esthetic treatments. The cost was more important for respondents living in more deprived districts (p=0.05), for unemployed group (p<0.001) and for those with less education (p<0.001).Conclusion: Factors affecting people's choice for dental care proved to be highly complicated. Recommendation was found playing an important role. Dental patients consider various factors when looking for non-esthetic treatment but would go for the best possible when seeking esthetic treatments. Findings of this study indicate that patients’ choice and utilization of dental service can be improved if dental clinics provide high quality of dental care with reasonable fees.

Background: Intersectoral action is often presented as essential in the promotion of population health and health equity. In Norway, national public health policies are based on the health in All Policies (HiAP) approach that promotes whole-of-government responsibility. As part of the promotion of this intersectoral responsibility, planning is presented as a tool that every Norwegian municipality should use to integrate public health policies into their planning and management systems. Although research on implementing the HiAP approach is increasing, few studies apply a planning perspective. To address this gap in the literature, our study investigates how three Norwegian municipalities experience the use of planning as a tool when implementing the HiAP approach. Methods: To investigate planning practices in three Norwegian municipalities, we used a qualitative multiple case study design based on face-to-face interviews. When analysing and discussing the results, we used the dichotomy of instrumental and communicative planning approaches, in addition to a collaborative planning approach, as the theoretical framework. Results: The municipalities encounter several dilemmas when using planning as a tool for implementing the HiAP approach. Balancing the use of qualitative and quantitative knowledge and balancing the use of structural and processual procedures are two such dilemmas. Other dilemmas include balancing the use of power and balancing action and understanding in different municipal contexts. They are also faced with the dilemma of whether to place public health issues at the forefront or to present these issues in more general terms. Conclusion: We argue that the dilemmas experienced by the municipalities might be explained by the difficult task of combining instrumental and communicative planning approaches because the balance between them is seldom fixed.