Did the structure of work in the public health nurse service of the Republic of Croatia change in the period 1995-2012?

In Croatia, public health nurses (PHN) have been members of family doctor (FD) teams for decades, conducting a multifunctional and polyvalent scope of activities, including health promotion, prevention, as well as part of the treatment for the inhabitants of a defined catchment area. The main aim of the study was to investigate the trends in the number and structure of PHN visits in the period from 1996 to 2012. The main sources of data were Croatian Health Service Yearbooks. The results strongly indicate that PHN's are overloaded by a high number of visits, especially to chronic patients. While mothers and new-born children are in the PHN care, pregnant women and small children are rather neglected. Considering different working conditions and differences in population needs, a review of the standard is recommendable.