Public Health Campaign: A Case Study

In disadvantaged communities where health disparities exist, it is imperative for the community health nurse to take on the advocacy role and be the voice for the people who could not or would not speak for themselves. Nies and McEwen’s (2015) definition of advocacy implies three assumptions, e.g., (1) awareness of the need to take on the cause of an individual, group, or community, (2) belief in the desirability of the cause, and (3) confidence in one’s ability to speak or act on someone’s behalf. (p. 1). To take on the advocacy role, the community health nurse targets decision makers who, with the stroke of a pen, could positively impact health promotion and disease prevention in the community. Similarly, the nurse in an advocacy role could write to public officials to request to support the cause, e.g., legislate a law of no smoking in private homes with young children. Using a more active and public display of advocacy, a nurse could join rallies or organizations that already initiated arguments for and against a cause, e.g., American Nurses Association (ANA). Furthermore, if it has to improve population health, public health implies action (Bassett, 2003). The improvement of public health does not rest solely on health care professionals; thus, one way that the community health nurse could advocate is to engage the community and urge people to get involved (Bassett, 2003). Lastly, just as “Public health takes place in boardrooms,

For this paper, Ms. Minister Melishia Bansa MPH was interviewed. She is a thirty year old African-American woman. Her occupation is the director of community outreach and provider Relations for “Coordination of Health Care for Complex Kids” (CHECK) Program and Project Coordinator of “Promoting Adolescent Health” (PATH) Study. She was interviewed about her work with the CHECK Program. The Coordination of Health Care for Complex Kids program aims to improve overall health and quality of life for underserved populations. This programs aims to fight the social injustice of unequal health systems for low socioeconomic communities. The CHECK program aims to increase doctor appointments and improve communication between the patient and the patient’s health provider. However, the program is focusing on young individuals with chronic illnesses within low socioeconomic communities.

For the purpose to this assignment is to explore and analyze a community health organization and determine how it meets the healthy people 2020 goals for vulnerable populations. Children and adolescents are among the vulnerable due to their inability to protect themselves from others. Community health organizations focuses on health education, prevention and promotions for all.

Q1: Understanding the cases/differences: What was the average number of new HIV cases in Scott County in 2013? What was it in the first six months of 2015? What are the demographics of those diagnosed in 2015? (Describe them)

During which, I learned that several communities in this vicinity were lacking appropriate health care options. While investigating what needs I could fulfill, I found information about an organization called Remote Area Medical (RAM). After researching the services offered, I promptly joined the organization. Without volunteers to operate the free clinic services, many individuals would suffer medical conditions without recognition or treatment putting the health of the community at risk. The most valuable concept that I learned is the state of health is not measured by individual situations alone, but also measured as a whole, and collaborative efforts of all community members are needed to maintain community health3.

Nies, M. A., & McEwen, M. (2015). Community/Public health nursing: Promoting the health populations (6th ed.). St. Louis, MO:

This is assignment is to review and reflect on your own personal values and beliefs which shapes how you interpret and analyze population health. The purpose of this paper is to reflect on how you see your role as a healthcare professional in advocating for, and influencing population health. Describe the connection of this role to public health and address your thoughts around the influence that health care providers may have or not, in promoting the health of the community. What role should heath care providers play, and what strategies may increase the influence of healthcare providers in improving population health? This assignment can be approached from a clinical, academic or public health focus.

“Strengthen community action”- The purpose of the health promotion program is to empower the local people to initiate on taking control over the social events which influence their lives and health (Rootman, 2001) Program design provides the sense of empowerment-based when the community members are involving in from planning to evaluation stage (Laverack & Labonte,

Healey and Zimmerman state (2010) that an innovative program will require not only team effort, but input from community leaders as well as collaborative partners, that will aid in the development, implementation, evaluation of a community education campaign, as well as the program continuance, including funding. The campaign should be built constructed on strong and understandable messages, so that the target population can take action and pass on the message from its memorable key components. An effective campaign then, will devise under the campaign logo what the problem needs to be changed, how the campaign will go about making this change, the consequences of not taking action, and the action to be taken to achieve the message of the proposed campaign (UN Women, 2012).

The public health profession has long recommended that local public health agencies periodically conduct community health assessments (CHA) and community health improvement plans (CHIP) to inform and guide their activities.5 A 1988 IOM report, The Future of Public Health, recommended that “every public health agency regularly and systematically collect, assemble, analyze and make available information on the health of the community, including statistics on health status, community health needs, and epidemiologic and other studies of health problems.”5 Community health improvement plan (CHIP) is defined as "a long-term, systematic effort to address health problems on the basis of the results of assessment activities and the community health improvement

One of the campaigns is lung cancer campaign ‘got a cough, get a check!’ it shows the symptoms of lung cancer, saying that if you are coughing a lot or if you cough up blood, neck pain and shortness of breath to see your doctor. This will mean that people can be checked earlier than leaving it for it to just get worse. Lung cancer is the most common cause of death ‘’it is known that smokers and ex-smokers have a particularly high risk of developing the disease: although most lung cancers are related to smoking, 10% of people with lung cancer have never smoked.’’ (http://lungcancercampaign.org/patient-information/). Which links to the smoking

When public health nurses collaborate with individuals, the focus is on promoting awareness, behaviors, and values that maintain and improve health, with the ultimate goal being of bettering the overall health of the population. These actions are also essential when interacting with families and communities, where the aim is in promoting family and community standards, attitudes, knowledge, and behaviors that improve their overall health. So in order to have positive outcomes the public health nurses need to also consider how essential it is to work with clients as equal partners. (p Book 8). The public health nurse’s actions must enhance understanding and the need for widespread health planning in collaboration with communities and populations, focused upon the perceptions, priorities, and values of the population.

Public health nurses can utilize outreach to help make health care more assessable to the communities they serve by implementing health education and counseling in areas the population congregate, for example: schools, community centers, churches and workplaces. Comprehensive services and

Over the past 8 years, healthcare has been a major topic of debate. President and governmental elections, school systems and districts, local communities, and even cartoons have centered their focus on what seems to be one of the US’s major dilemmas: Healthcare. While our country has vast resources and often leads the world in advanced technology, healthcare and its access remains something we have yet mastered (Collaboration Health Care, 2015). As defined by WHO, the World Health Organization (2015), healthcare promotion is the process of enabling people to increase control over, and to improve their health. It moves beyond a focus on individual behavior towards a wide range of social and environmental interventions. While the concept of health promotion, its accessibility, and its maintenance are easy to understand, sometimes things easily understood aren’t as easily implemented into the general populations and their lifestyles. Unfortunately, there are many obstacles standing between the general population and complete access to healthcare. Some of the major hurdles include:

To conclude, health promotion is important factor to decrease and health disparities. If the resource is available and provided, and advocates like organizations like Health People 2020 can make a difference in a community to take their own health into their own hands if given the right education and tools. People have to be empowered to understand so they can assist in correcting the problems in their communities and individual