Public health nursing and The Future of Public Health.

The recent Institute of Medicine report, The Future of Public Health, reviews the history, current status, and potential of the public health system in the United States, and makes detailed recommendations for its revitalization. Although public reports such as this risk speedy obscurity, many are used by planners and legislators and a few exert significant influence. Public health nursing is inadequately represented in this potentially influential document, and this has unfortunate implications for public health nursing.