Abstract
There is a growing sense of urgency among nurses and other prmary care providers about the devastating effects of poverty, illiteracy, and domestic violence on family health. Family-focused health care models that are community based, portable, culturally specific, interdisciplinary, and inclusive of health maintenance and consumer education are desperately neededfor vulnerablefamilies. Professional nurses are developing strategies to provide more community-based primary health care and are positioned tofunction as practitioners instead of handmaiden employees. Nurses' challenge is to provide leadership and innovation for family health care education, research, policy, and practiceas they intensify their work with vulnerablefamilies in ways that recognize their strengths and resources.
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