Public Health Intervention Strategies

“Nursing encompasses autonomous and collaborative care of individuals of all ages, families, groups and communities, sick or well and in all settings. Nursing includes the promotion of health, prevention of illness, and the care of ill, disabled and dying people. Advocacy, promotion of a safe environment, research, participation in shaping health policy and in patient and health systems management, and education are also key nursing roles” (ICN 2010)

Community health nursing is a vocation; striving to improve the health of the community by promoting, stabilizing and protecting the health of individuals, families and identified aggregates. We are able to have the furthest reach when we can isolate a specific deficit of an aggregate through assessment and subsequently the development of a community support program. Community support programs promote health, access to services and self-advocacy.

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

Creating social and physical environment that promote good health is another goal set by Healthy People 2020 that is designed to create and promote a healthy physical as well as social environment by the year 2020. Everyone deserves to have the equal opportunity to make healthy decisions that will promote good and healthy lifestyle. For this to be achieved, health care advances and improvements need to be made. Community integration and planning, social factors such as quality education, community based resources, social support system, hazard free environment all have significant impact on people’s health. With the challenges we face, nurses can promote a safe and healthy environment through nursing education and wellness programs, disease control programs, immunization programs and many more to alleviate and or eliminate burdens, reduce untimely deaths, and create safe environment that promotes a healthy lifestyle for all.

Community health nurses incorporate community participation and knowledge about the total population with personal, clinical understandings of the

The roal of public health nursing is to promote and protect the health of the population. This proactive approach does not limit their scope of practice to health concerns of individuals but also to developing and implementing programs and policies that help enhance the health of populations. The role of public health nurses is to focus on population centered care with the outcome of promoting health, preventing disability and disease, and improving the quality of life. An effective public health nurse is able to evaluate assessment data to define population diagnoses and set priorities accordingly. They can also serve as advocates for individuals and families in the population to develop policies, access resources, and protect their

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

In an effort to promote the health needs within a community, a successful community health nurse (CHN) must focus on the entire population. In order to accomplish this task, the CHN utilizes a scientific approach to determine the priority population focused health needs for the community. According to Nies & McEwen (2011), a population focus involving an assessment of the community is a primary tool utilized in order to develop planning, interventions, and evaluations for the community at large. The purpose of this paper is to determine a priority

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

Community health nurses find out information about the community’s involvement and knowledge. They use their clinical understanding and experience to bring information to the community’s about different health issues in that area. For example if HIV was increasing in their area they would collect the numbers and data and bring it to the attention of other health care agencies to bring

Nurses take on educator roles both in educating the public on their health and as educators in clinical practice and academic settings. As a public educator, nurses teach and counsel patients and families to enhance health and well-being. Patient and family health education is an important step in preventing disease. In order to be able to properly educate their clients on health promotion and well-being, nurses must first fully understand “health”. Nurses do not view health as “the absence of illness” but “define health as the extent to which an individual or group is able to realize aspirations, to satisfy needs and to change or cope with the environment in which they live.” (CARNA, 2005, p.2). Nurses hold a holistic view of the person and health and address health within the context of a person’s wholeness, including biological, emotional, psychological, social, cultural, and spiritual dimensions. Incorporating these ideas, nurses use the determinants of health as a way of dealing with and achieving health for an individual. Nurses recognize the broad determinants of health as income & social status, education, culture, physical environments, gender, health services, social support networks, employment & working conditions, health services, personal health practices, and biology & genetic endowment.

Smith, C., & Maurer, F. (2013). Community/Public Health Nursing Practice (5th ed.). :. []. http://dx.doi.org/. Retrieved from www.evolve.elsiver

Public health nurses "play a strategic role in helping reduce environmental and lifestyle-related health hazards by promoting a positive lifestyle, including exercise, stress management, accident prevention, weight maintenance, and nutrition education that is sensitive to socio-economic status and cultural beliefs” ("Obesity's Impact on Public Health Nursing," n.d.). Nurses can help by involving themselves in policy development by being active participants in the policy process as it closely resembles the nursing process. Through community assessments, public health nurses can determine health factors by assessing the socioeconomic, environmental, and behavioral factors of the population to determine interventions

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).

The role of the community health nurse in the participating family’s community is to focus on the health needs of the aggregate or group. Community health nursing refers to a systematic, comprehensive focus on wellness, health protection, and disease, and injury prevention for the population residing in a specific area. The nurse functions as advocate, case manager, consultant, health care provider, educator, and collaborator with other agencies for healthy outcomes of the entire community. Nurses involved in the health of a specific community such as the family participating will assess the members living in the demographic