FAU Community Health Nursing an Essential Sector in Nursing Discussion

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Community Health Nursing

Denise Alba

St. Thomas University

           The contemporary restructuring and transformation of the healthcare systems in the US, as well as around the world, is shown to also consider community health nursing as an integral part towards establishing a health-oriented system rather than a disease-oriented system. Fundamentally, community health nursing (CHN) refers to a special nursing field that combines public health, nursing, and elements of social assistance, which operates as part of the entire public health program to help a community protect and preserve the health and wellbeing of its members (Nies & McEwen, 2019). Furthermore, WHO (2010) asserts that the secondary goal of community health nursing involves promoting self-care among individuals and families within its immediate community. In this light, in order to effectively integrate and support community health nursing in the current healthcare system, it is important to understand the stakeholders, as well as their role, in supporting community health nursing, specifically the clients and the government.

Clients in Community Health Nursing

           Essentially, the community is largely considered as the client in community health nursing, rather than an individual person. Moreover, as a client, the community is made up of various levels of clientele, which includes an individual, the family, and population groups (Galan, 2021). In particular, the family is considered as a the basic unit of care in the community. Similarly, the population groups are used to refer to a group of people who share common attributes, developmental stages, and health risk factors, such as the elderly, children, and teenagers among others. The community as a client is considered as an active partner in CHN, which means that it is involved in the decision-making processes on health care services and care practices. This is mainly because CHN is affected by developments in the health technology, particularly societal changes.

The Government Resources that the Clients are eligible for in CHN

           As well, the government plays an important role in preserving, protecting, and promoting community health nursing. This involves different levels of government providing various resources aimed at continually improving health care services provided. Specifically, the community is eligible for counseling and education programs from the state and local governments (Pittman & Park, 2021). Furthermore, the state and local government are responsible for collecting data on health trends and care practices and thus provided effective measures and policies to enhance healthcare services in the community. In addition, the community is eligible for effective healthcare management policies, and funds aimed at improving CHN in order to improve the health status of the general community. As well, state and federal governments are responsible for ensuring that a community has adequate healthcare equipment and professionals in order to foster quality care delivery to the community.

Agencies responsible for CHN Resources

           As an integral part of the general public health system, it is important that CHN resources offered by the government are effectively managed, implemented, and enforce at the community level. Consequently, state and local healthcare agencies are mandated to continually improve healthcare services in CHN. In particular, the National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO) is the nation-wide CHN agency managing healthcare resources from the federal government (NACCHO, 2021). Similarly, there are also county-based local CHN agencies referred to as local public health agencies (LPHA), which are responsible for CHN resources where they serve a single county, varying from rural to urban counties. Together with various federal healthcare agencies, they work together to distribute resources provided by the federal government as well as provide education and counseling programs aimed at improving the health status of the community in general.   

References

Galan, N. (2021). Community Health Nurse Career Overview. Nurse Journal, https://nursejournal.org/articles/top-community-he…

National Association of County and City Health Officials (2021). About. https://www.naccho.org/about

Nies, M., & McEwen, M. (2019). Community/Public Health Nursing, 7th Edition. Philadelphia, PA: Saunders Publishing

Pittman, P., Park, J., (2021). Rebuilding Community-Based and Public Health Nursing in the Wake of COVID-19. The Online Journal of Issues in Nursing, 26(7). DOI: 10.3912/OJIN.Vol26No02Man07

World Health Organization (2010). A framework for community health nursing education [Report no. SEA-NUR-467]. New Delhi, India: WHO.

Below I have 2 posts please provide a response for both. 150 words each with reference.

Part 2

Your response to your peers by extending, refuting/correcting, or adding additional nuance to their posts.

Community health nursing

      Community health nursing is defined as the integration of nursing practice and public health, and is used to promote and protect the health of the population. It is a specialized field of nursing that focuses on the health needs of communities, groups, and especially vulnerable groups. We tend to think of a community as a geographic place, but a community may refer to any group of people who share common values, culture, characteristics, and goals, whether they live in a specific geographical locale or are separated by distance (Skemp, Dreher, & Lehmann, 2016) .  In practice, nurses have always cared about individuals, families and communities. Recently, the number of nurses working outside the hospital has increased, mainly in community-based settings that focus on individuals and families. Community-centered care that takes the community as the client is also getting more and more attention.

      Public health nursing care is provided to individuals, families, communities, and populations through a population-based lens that enables nurses to view their clients within the context of the community in which they and their clients live (Schoon et al., 2018). When the location of the practice is the community and the focus of the practice is the individual or family, the client remains the individual or family, and the nurse is practicing in the community as the setting; this is an example of community based nursing practice. The community is the client only when the nursing focus is on the collective or common good of the population instead of on individual health. Community health nursing is essential particularly at this point in time because it maximizes the health status of individuals, families, groups and the community through direct approach with them.

      Basic public health resources are an important process for the development and implementation of basic public health functions. These basic public health resources are: prevention of epidemics and injuries, prevention of environmental hazards, promotion of healthy behaviors, response to disasters and guarantee of the quality and accessibility of medical services. Basic public health services provide a framework that can be applied to all areas of public health practice.

      Public health nurses work at all levels of government, in the city, suburbs and rural environments, and in several community agencies and organizations. The federal, states and local governments offer important resources to contribute to all the public’s health. At the federal level, the U.S department of Human Health and Human Services (DHHS) supervises many other agencies that focus on the health and well-being of US citizens. One of these agencies is the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The CDC tracks the development of disease and health statistics and protects the health and quality of life of the US population. State health departments often work with both federal and local levels of government. State health departments regulate facilities and organizations that influence health and health services. Examples of healthcare facilities regulated by the state include hospitals, clinics, and nursing homes. State functions include financing and administering programs (Stanhope & Lancaster, 2016) and offering technical assistance to local health departments for program development and services.  Regardless of the organizational structure, a strong partnership between state and local health departments is essential to promote and protect the health of populations (Schoon et al., 2018).

References

Skemp, L . E ., Dreher, M . C ., & Lehmann, S . P . (2016). Healthy places, healthy people (3rd Ed .) . Indianapolis, IN: Sigma Theta Tau International .

Schoon, P. M., Porta, C. M., & Schaffer, M. A.  (2018). Population-Based Public Health Clinical Manual.: The Henry Street Model for Nurses:, (3rd Ed.). Sigma.

Stanhope, M., & Lancaster, J. (2016). Public health nursing: Population-centered health care in the community. St. Louis, MO: Elsevier, Inc