Public health nurses' primary health care practice: strategies for fostering citizen participation.

Citizen participation is heralded as a critical element of community health programs that emphasize empowerment and health promotion strategies. Although there is a growing body of research on public health nurses' primary health care practice, few studies have described how public health nurses foster citizen participation. This article presents findings from an interpretive qualitative study of public health nurses' perceptions of their role in fostering citizen participation in an eastern Canadian province at a time of significant health care restructuring. The findings from this study clearly profile public health nurses as integral to the practice of fostering citizen participation.