Question

This assignment is designed to ensure you understand the basics of public and community health. It is important to understand the close relationship between public and community health.

In your assignment:

• Define public/community health nursing.
• Define primary, secondary, and tertiary levels of prevention.
• Give examples of each level of prevention.
• Describe the nurse's roles and responsibilities in community and public health nursing.
• Explain current issues facing community and public health nurses.

Format your assignment as one of the following:

• 875-word paper

Answer 1

Introduction;

Health is one of the terms that is difficult to define where every individual has to be healthy. Health is not only to be physically active but also mentally, socially, and economically be productive. Health is the fundamental right of human being. It is the central concept and an integral part of the quality of life. Group of individuals are called communities and communities are protected through the implementation of public health.

Public/Community Health Nursing:

Society should be in the right condition to promote a healthy community. Personal health care is ultimate in improving public health concept and attaining the quality of life. Public health mainly focuses on preventive health and make the entire community free from diseases and illnesses. Government public health agencies empower these programs by assessing, providing a safe environment in the communities. Public health nursing focusses on health promotion and preservation of the particular population. Public health nursing takes care of speciality issues within the population as a whole.

Community health nursing focuses on promotion, prevention, and maintenance of health through personal health services at the community level. Community health nursing improves the health of the individual at the home or in the community-based clinics.

Prevention:

Prevention is the preventing of occurrence of disease instead of treating the diseases. It the measures are taken to prevent the onset of disease and to promote good health. Three levels of prevention in the community health sector are

1. Primary prevention:

Primary prevention is the prevention of onset of disease before it occurs. It reduces the overall incidence rate by applying interventions immediately after finding any evidence of disease.

Examples:

• Control of hazardous substances to promote healthy practices and prevention of disease.
• Providing immunization against the disease agents.

2.Secondary prevention:

Secondary prevention is the prevention of impact of the disease once it occurred. It is the regaining of the individual to its original states. Secondary prevention is the identification of disease at early and promoting an appropriate treatment.

Examples:

• A screening test such as mammogram for early detection of breast cancer.
• Diet control and physical exercises to minimize of heart attacks.

3.Tertiary Prevention:

Tertiary prevention is the minimizing of ongoing illness for the long term as rehabilitative care. It is the measures taken to improve the ability of function, quality of life, and to increase the life expectancy.

Examples:

• The rehabilitation program for the management of stroke.
• Health education to modify the behaviour and to improve the ability of function.

Roles and responsibilities of the Community health nurse:

• The nurses play a caregivers role in the community and maintain a strong relationship within the community.
• Nurses promote health and wellness in the community.
• They treat the injuries, illness and work coordinate the work in case of emergencies or disaster relief.
• Nurses are responsible for the prevention of community - based health diseases.
• They act as an educator and educate about the prevention of chronic diseases and change of behaviour.
• They implement changes in the health policy based on the community needs.
• They use the resources within the community and improve the quality of life.
• Community health nurse advocates the local health funding for the implementation of health programs.
• They conduct school health programmes, nutrition programme for the welfare of women and pregnant mothers.
• They promote the maternal and child health care within the community.
• They maintain the community cultural values and norms.

Current issues of Community and Public health nurses:

Community health nurse meets a number of challenges in their daily life. They are responsible for the health of the entire family and not on the individual. The insufficient number of staffs at the community health nursing makes the nurse to be more workload. This increases the nurse's dissatisfaction and turnover. The unsafe environment makes the nurses to be violated in the workplace area. Community health nurse needs extra effort in caring for families and to maintain effective communication. She has to look after the community environment and to implement necessary changes for the wellness of the people. They have a lack of promotion and fewer opportunities for updating the knowledge and getting training. There is a frequent health care reform which affects the workforce and time. Inadequate resources make them challengeable to implement the health programs. Language and cultural barriers will affect in implementing of interventions.