Nurses and other public health practitioners have a crucial role to play in helping to improve the collective well being of society and so developing skills in public health - preventing disease, prolonging life and promoting health – is key to this process. Public Health Skills: A practical guide for nurses and public health practitioners covers the complete spectrum of public health practice: the effective assessment and management of need, understanding policy and how to affect its implementation; before moving on to explore practical issues and themes surrounding the facilitation of public health. Within the four sections of the book, the text is organised around the ten core public health skills outlined in the National Occupational Standards for the practice of public health, covering skills including surveillance and assessment, collaborative working, working with communities, strategy development, risk management, leadership and ethics.

Public Health Skills: A practical guide for nurses and public health practitioners provides the fundamental, essential knowledge and skills required to provide safe and effective practice and is an invaluable resource for all those connected to this vital, challenging and rapidly expanding aspect of health provision.

Lesley Coles is a Lecturer in Public health in the School of Nursing and Midwifery, at the University of Southampton.

Elizabeth Porter is a Lecturer in Public Health Practice and Health Visiting in the School of Nursing and Midwifery, at the University of Southampton.