Discussion: Community health practice

Discussion: Community health practice

Community health nurses practice in a variety of settings. Choose one of the following CH settings, and describe what you have learned about the setting and the role(s) of the nurse in that setting (see Nies & McEwen, 2019, Chapters 30-34). Please do not choose home health nursing for this discussion because your paper is on home health nursing.

• School nursing
• Faith-based or parish nursing
• Occupational health nursing
• Forensic Nursing
• Hospice nursing
• Correctional nursing

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Next study levels of prevention in this week’s lesson (primary, secondary, and tertiary). Note that the term primary is used differently than in normal conversation.

• Describe one of the levels of prevention, and discuss how a community health nurse (CHN) in the setting you discussed can implement this level of prevention.

Community health is a major field of study within the medical and clinical sciences which focuses on the maintenance, protection, and improvement of the health status of population groups and communities. It is a distinct field of study that may be taught within a separate school of public health or environmental health. The WHO defines community health as:

environmental, social, and economic resources to sustain emotional and physical well being among people in ways that advance their aspirations and satisfy their needs in their unique environment.^[1]

Community health tends to focus on a defined geographical community. The health characteristics of a community are often examined using geographic information system (GIS) software and public health datasets. Some projects, such as InfoShare or GEOPROJ combine GIS with existing datasets, allowing the general public to examine the characteristics of any given community in participating countries.

Medical interventions that occur in communities can be classified as three categories: primary healthcare, secondary healthcare, and tertiary healthcare. Each category focuses on a different level and approach towards the community or population group. In the United States, community health is rooted within primary healthcare achievements.^[2] Primary healthcare programs aim to reduce risk factors and increase health promotion and prevention. Secondary healthcare is related to “hospital care” where acute care is administered in a hospital department setting. Tertiary healthcare refers to highly specialized care usually involving disease or disability management.

The success of community health programmes relies upon the transfer of information from health professionals to the general public using one-to-one or one to many communication (mass communication). The latest shift is towards health marketing.