[Development trends and future challenges in community nurse practitioner].

Community health nursing is an innovative aspect of healthcare that has grown in response to changing environmental and social structure changes into a worldwide movement. Taiwan's fast growing elderly population, improving health technologies and rising healthcare costs impact significantly upon the development and definition of the scope of practice for community health nurse nurses. This paper explores the innovative community care model development experiences of several countries and reviews the scope of practice of community health nurse practitioners in each. We further explore the current situation of nurse practitioners in Taiwan and suggest a future path for Taiwan community health nurse practitioners development and policymaking.