Public Health Intervention : Advocacy

Stanhope, M., & Lancaster, J. (2012). Public health nursing: Population-centered health care in the community (8th ed.). Maryland Heights, MO: Mosby Elsev

There are several ways in which APNs can take action and influence health policy. Directly contacting a legislator or local representative by writing a letter, sending a fax, or by telephone is one. In an article written by Maryland and Gonzalez (2010), the authors remind the reader that the majority of elected officials have no healthcare experience and often times do not realize how their decisions will effect healthcare workers. This makes sharing healthcare experiences from a nursing point of view vital. One disadvantage could be that unless the person contacted responds, there is no way of knowing if your proposal was received by the right person or even taken seriously.

Individuals involved in political action are often looked at as advocates, moreover, nurses specifically have a role in advocating for the marginalized, disenfranchised, and vulnerable populations. The impact nursing has on political action dates back to “the 1960s and 1970s with the push for women’s rights and issues surrounding consumer rights” (Mason, et al., 2016, p. 31). Nurses became known as advocates for their patients which physicians interpreted to going against what they felt to be in the best interest of the patient’s health. The nurses were not carrying out the orders physicians gave, stating they were advocating for their patients. With the movement of nurses advocating for their patients, that opened the doors for an opportunity where nurses could begin practicing autonomously and establishing nursing as a profession. Some states have gone so far as to defining, within their nurse practice act, how nurses will advocate for their patients, nursing, and the health care field (Mason, et al., 2016, p. 32). Quality of a great advocate include, feeling empathy towards the patient, situation, or issue. As you learn to empathize, you become passionate about the situation and/or issue (e.g. health disparity), thus becoming engaged in the situation. As nurses, we are extremely passionate about what we do. This leads us to tap into our moral compass and how we identify with the patient, situation, or

An effective way the nurse can utilize advocacy to increase awareness about a major issue can be accomplished by getting involved in the community board meeting to share the impacts the issue has on the community. According to NYC (2016), Community board plays an important role in providing quality of life for all the residents of New York City by utilizing a democratic approach to involve public participation, consensus building and create a positive local change. To further analyze the importance of community board meeting, this paper will identify the purpose of a community board meeting that I have attended, identify behavioral characteristics of the group leaders, describe a discussion, and analyze some alternative strategies for consensus building.

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

As young American adults turn eighteen, they are reminded that it is their civic duty and responsibility to register to vote, to be aware of the current policies and to make educated decisions in the voting booth. As some of these young adults become active in the nursing profession, they are taught that their ultimate responsibility is to advocate for their patients; they are to ensure their safety and well-being. That being said, does this responsibility stop at the bedside? Should nurses take an active role in the policy making that directly affects the healthcare of their patients? Conn and Armer (2012) stated that “nurses must be prepared to use multiple and varied strategies to influence public policy so that optimal health outcomes can be achieved” (p. 296). This statement alone implies that nursing’s responsibility extends beyond direct patient care.

The nurse can be an advocate, by first contacting local officials to help them understand the importance of funding and the support needed from the government in order for the community to receive quality of care.

Advocacy is defined as the “act of pleading another person’s case in which the endpoint is the health and welfare of the public”(Hamric, Hanson, Tracy, & O’Grady, 2014, p. 287). The APN has a specific role in promoting health policy issues. It is their responsibility to engage in the legislation that governs their practice on a state and federal level. Barriers that prevent APN from practicing to the full extent of their expertise include limited autonomy in some states and being recognize

This study described the evidence-based intervention C.O.R.D., which stands for Childhood Obesity Research Demonstration. The grantees worked in six rural and urban communities across Texas, California, and Massachusetts. The CDC provided funds for this program in 2011, and the project ran for four years focusing on improving the physical and nutritional activity in the places they live. The project’s goal was to find if public health interventions in schools, education centers, and communities joined with pediatric health care settings could reduce obesity. They did this by making sure children get enough sleep, children get enough activity accompanied by the consumption of fruits and vegetables, and reducing children’s screen time and sugary drinks.

Food safety is one significant discipline that health inspectors are involved with. Health inspectors have an important role in ensuring that food safety is achieved by performing public health inspection interventions of food service establishments. There are several reasons to conduct inspections of food service establishments, such as ensuring compliance with regulations, but the main reason is to prevent foodborne illnesses from occurring. In doing so, health hazards can be prevented. With public health inspection interventions, food service establishments can be monitored to ensure compliance with the regulations, so that health hazards and foodborne illnesses do not occur (Health Inspections Canada, 2015). Some examples of this are serving potentially hazardous foods, and customers having E.coli 0157:H7 and Listeria monocytogenes infections from eating improperly handled foods. In addition to the inspection, educating operators can be a part of the public health inspection interventions to further protect the public from foodborne illnesses. This

These compartments of engagement include individual, group, organization/institutional, community, national, and international context. The emancipatory reflection promoted praxis and the ability to envision and act toward the possibility of individual and collective self-determination. The interpretive findings of this theory include the voice of privilege primarily informed ENP theory, the lack of nursing educational and organizational support in social justice role development, and the advocate role should expand to include the role of an ally. Health and disparities and inequality are socioeconomically constructed. The theory encourages nurses to engage in social justice to identify and redress the social conditions that negatively impact individual and public health. Professional awareness and involvement may increase if a theoretical framework is developed and this theory could be used in addressing the root cause of public and individual health concerns. For example, using this theory, the health problems that we are witnessing in our community today such as diabetes associated with sugary beverages could be addressed by implementing the ENP theory.

How would life look like without public health education and intervention? Without public health in any given society would lead to a disastrous impact on human health by causing a huge number of deaths, disabilities and many colonic diseases on people. Also this will put an economic burden on public concerned government as well people at an individual level. Public health has been a core pillar and a champion stake holder for promoting health education in the United States and the entire world in a wide range of health aspects. The public health sector has seen health of the general population improve tremendously over time from ancient time to modern time. Since pre-historic and ancient time public health education has been on the forefront

This proposed public health intervention is based on the conceptual framework developed by QUT and the AIHW, which considers the downstream, midstream and upstream determinants of health (Draper et al., 2004).

Living a long, thriving and healthy life is a vision many Americans strive to make into a reality. Unfortunately, HIV/AIDS epidemic has deprived many people of this dream. HIV/AIDS is one of the worlds’ most serious and the deadliest diseases and a $30.4 billion drain on healthcare cost in the United States, and of this figures’ 57% is appropriated for routine care, 10% for housing and social support assistance, 9% for research and 22% for global assistance to address the epidemic (The Henry J. Kaiser Foundation, 2016). According to Small & Kerr, (2011), HIV/AIDS research has had a long and peculiar history in evidence-based advances related to disease management, education, and antiretroviral medication. With all the advances to increase HIV/AIDS awareness, access to care, fear of stigma and lack of confidentiality act as reasoning for treatment and testing refusal. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the possible course of public policy mandate reporting and incorporating responses to legal and ethical dilemmas through effective advocacy programs and supportive lobbyists.

In the long, a certain community become prone to certain diseases than others. For nursing to be effective, it will call for the establishment of those policies that ensure equality of participation, contribution, and opportunity (Potter and Perry, 2006).