Community Health Nursing Comprehensive Nursing Essay Example

Community Health Nursing Comprehensive Nursing Essay Example

Define Public/Community Health Nursing

Health care systems are designed to provide effective, efficient, and equitable services to communities. There are various levels of practice in health institutions, including public health nursing. This practice denotes a systematic process through which medical interventions are initiated to address community needs and, as a result, influence the mode of service delivery, policy development, and disease prevention (Merius & Rohan, 2017). It is a holistic approach to healthcare that aims to restore a patient’s good health in the event of injury, illness, disability, and premature death. Furthermore, public health nursing utilizes medical knowledge from social, nursing, and public health sciences to promote and protect community health. Over the years, focus on public health has transitioned from enhancing an individual’s well-being to promoting a community’s health and safety for better outcomes. Some of the benefits of public health nursing include fewer injuries, reduced susceptibility to diseases, and prolonged life expectancy. (Community Health Nursing Comprehensive Nursing Essay Example)

Public health nursing delineates a broad health care perspective that centers on service towards an individual and community. When considering a community’s needs, a population with similar characteristics is identified, but subgroups and subpopulations are crucial for an individual’s needs. Although these distinctions can be complex, public health nursing practitioners should critically assess situations, needs, and practice parameters of communities and their members. (Community Health Nursing Comprehensive Nursing Essay Example)

Define Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary Levels of Prevention

Health care prevention is a fundamental approach towards averting the adverse effects and outcomes of health risks and threats. Prevention entails initiating interventions to reduce susceptibility to adversities, especially among highly vulnerable persons, including the elderly and children (Evans-Agnew et al., 2016). There are three levels of prevention, primary, secondary and tertiary. (Community Health Nursing Comprehensive Nursing Essay Example)

Primary prevention is an intervention that aims to avert the possibility of a situation before it occurs. It could be a disease or injury. In most cases, health personnel advocate for healthy living, including adopting healthy behaviors, dietary routines and avoiding exposures to hazardous environmental elements that can result in undesirable health outcomes. The benefits of primary prevention are that it enhances resistance to harmful pathogens and exposures. Examples of primary prevention include immunization against highly infectious diseases, regular exercises, improving hygiene practices, and treating drinking water. (Community Health Nursing Comprehensive Nursing Essay Example)

In situations where primary prevention is not achieved, secondary prevention is used to reduce the effects of disease or injury. The secondary level of prevention is characterized by timely detection and treatment to avert further impacts on patients and community health in general (Evans-Agnew et al., 2016). As a result, detected diseases and injuries can be slowed or halted to allow nurses to restore good health and prevent reoccurrence. Examples of secondary prevention include screen tests, diet and exercise programs, and modified work for injured patients. These approaches contribute prevention of occurring diseases and injuries significantly and maintain healthy living standards. (Community Health Nursing Comprehensive Nursing Essay Example)

Tertiary prevention applies to patients with long-term illnesses such as chronic diseases, disabilities, and permanent impairments. This prevention helps to reduce the effects of the illnesses by establishing resilience to the complex health problems. Although tertiary prevention does not guarantee permanent treatment, it enhances a patient’s quality of life and improves life expectancy. Examples of tertiary prevention include rehabilitation programs for patients suffering from depression, arthritis, and diabetes. In workplaces, vocational rehabilitation programs have great potential to enhance workers’ recovery. Likewise, support groups allow community members enrolled in health programs to share ideas for healthy living. (Community Health Nursing Comprehensive Nursing Essay Example)

Nursing roles and responsibilities in community and public health nursing

Public health nurses in the United States provide proactive health care that focuses on all aspects of communities. Nurses perform roles and responsibilities in different locations and settings, serving populations and subpopulations (Marques & Rodriguez, 2016). Some are stationed in community health centers, correctional facilities, schools, and government agencies. Public health nurses are responsible for promoting good health, community building, and promoting health reforms that meet the needs of a population. Nurses’ scope and standard of practice are broad and require that they exhibit specific competencies to facilitate advanced practice requirements, including coordination, consultation, health education, and regulation maintenance activities. (Community Health Nursing Comprehensive Nursing Essay Example)

Public health nurses facilitate healthy relations between patients and management systems by promoting consensus in contentious issues. Likewise, they are responsible for assessing available resources within health care institutions and planning for effective utilization through equitable care and service delivery to communities. (Community Health Nursing Comprehensive Nursing Essay Example)

Explain Current Issues faced explicitly by the community and public health nurses

Public health nursing has revolutionized significantly to broaden the scope of nurses in health care. Nurses must have a substantive medical history and relate it with public policy and social science provisions to be considered public health nurses (Merius & Rohan, 2017). This requirement is designed to prevent emerging issues among patients and the community during their stay in hospitals and nursing homes. However, some pertinent issues and concerns influence nurses’ efficiency and community ability to access care. The nursing field is highly dynamic. Nurses are tasked with assessing community needs, available resources, and determining values indicating numerous tasks at their disposal. Moreover, public health nurses must partner with the community to ascertain the most viable programs for implementation and those that should be discontinued due to lack of efficiency. As a result, the community and nurses can determine practical approaches to address issues and promote public or community health nursing. (Community Health Nursing Comprehensive Nursing Essay Example)

References

Evans-Agnew, R., Reyes, D., Primomo, J., Meyer, K., & Matlock-Hightower, C. (2016). Community health needs assessments: Expanding the boundaries of nursing education in population health. Public Health Nursing, 34(1), 69-77. doi.org/10.1111/phn.12298

Marques, N., & Rodriguez, E. (2016). Partnerships in public health nursing as an effective means to promote health services in schools. Journal of Community & Public Health Nursing, 2(2).(Community Health Nursing Comprehensive Nursing Essay Example) doi.org/10.4172/2471-9846.1000119

Merius, H., & Rohan, A. (2017). An Integrative review of factors associated with patient attrition from community health worker programs that support diabetes self-care. Journal of Community Health Nursing, 34(4), 214-228. doi.org/10.1080/07370016.2017.1369811