Community Health Nursing Discussion reply

PLEASE RESPOND TO EACH DISCUSSION WITH AT LEAST 200 WORDS.
JULIANNE :
I really enjoyed this class. I am glad I had the opportunity to grow my knowledge and awareness of others and communities by assessing the needs of others in a larger light than the patients I encounter on a daily basis. I am more aware of the role a person’s socioeconomic status, education, neighborhood, and upbringing has on their health and how these factors need to be considered when planning their care. As a nurse, I believe this course has added to my role by adding an assessment of a patient’s social and community background to my physical assessment. By collecting this information, I can assist in building a relationship and a care plan that is achievable in improving their health status. Through this process, I feel motivated to make important questions regarding a person’s community status part of a hospital-wide approach. Systematic screening for social determinants of health increases the number of concerns that can be addressed and can also serve as a larger data set for quality improvement (Browne et al., 2021). I believe I could have spent more time with the textbook and reading more resources for the assignments of this course, but I believe I put a strong effort into this class, meeting the learning objectives.
One topic that has really resonated with me through this class is the impact of environmental health in communities. Many people are aware of the correlations of asthma and respiratory issues with pollution but not enough realize how these problems are increasing at an alarming rate. I fear the future health of all people if we continue in this trend, especially as I live in an area that is growing rapidly with multiple condo and apartment complexes being built and destruction of natural areas. This will become an added challenge for nurses as we will see sicker, more acute patients in our hospitals and clinics. Moreover, natural disasters are occurring more frequently as a result of climate change and destruction of natural resources. Through the experiences of this class I feel more confident I can assist as a nurse during an emergency and am working to become more prepared for a disaster in my personal life.
Browne, J., Mccurley, J. L., Fung, V., Levy, D. E., Clark, C. R., & Thorndike, A. N. (2021). Addressing Social Determinants of Health Identified by Systematic Screening in a Medicaid Accountable Care Organization: A Qualitative Study. Journal of Primary Care & Community Health, 12https://doi.org/10.1177/2150132721993651
KATHRYN:
When approaching this course, I was excited. My first degree is a BS in Community Health Education and Promotion. I enjoyed navigating public health from the nurse’s perspective and I believe I was able effectively meet many of the course objectives. The public health nurse is able to “translate knowledge from health and social sciences to individuals and population groups through targeted interventions, programs, and advocacy,” (Missouri Department of Health & Senior Services, n.d., p. 2). Nurses in the public health setting are able to help people in the community by providing education, assessing needs, and lobbying for changes that are necessary for the wellbeing of all. Nurses must look at all aspects of a community, including culture, politics, economics, and more, in order to really understand how to best serve those in their communities. I better understand this after working through the community assessment. It helped me to see my community outside of the eyes of a civilian living here.
Creating the informatics regarding the LGBTQ+ community helped me to find a way to create and share information with a specific group while simultaneously providing education on important health concerns. I felt like I learned a great deal about a topic that I didn’t have a large grasp on prior to the course. Additionally, our weekly discussion posts helped greatly to understand the different roles the public health nurse holds. The public health nurse goes beyond the skills learned in nursing school. The projects completed, such as the power point in emergency preparedness, gave me insight on these different roles and how a nurse can truly help those in the community they serve.
While I think many of the course objectives were easily met through the assignments and discussion posts, I do not think I was able to pinpoint a time when I fully met objective 4. However, it is easy to imagine a trend that could impact health in the future, such as how poor diet related to poverty could lead to an increase in diabetes. It is important for the public health nurse to identify health concerns and how the could impact a community in the long term.
Missouri Department of Health & Senior Services. (n.d.). Role of public health nurses. https://health.mo.gov/living/lpha/phnursing/phnroles.php#:~:text=In%20any%20setting%2C%20the%20role,of%20the%20health%20of%20populations.