Community and Population Health

Community and Population Health

Community and population health is identifying problems and/or potential problems that exist in the community. It impacts the population of the community so this shows the significance of addressing any issues. In my professional practice, I always keep community and population health in mind when I am interacting with patients. I am on the lookout for any hazards or risks that the patient may mention that indicates a community problem. For example, if I have a patient who is homeless and mentions that he abuses drugs because they are easily accessible, I would follow up this information with questions. These questions can help clarify and find out more details about the situation, which is important because the issue will need to be addressed and followed up on. By always being aware of potential community and population health issues, I can be prepared to assess and address any potential red flags I identify in a community. In professional roles and values I learned that there are roles the nurse can play to effect and cause positive changes at the community level. This happens when playing the role of a nurse detective or manager of the healing environment. This changes my definition of community and population health because now I am able to include other nurse roles when assessing for potential hazards or risks involving a certain population or community. When investigating and looking closer into a potential hazard, I am acting in the role of nurse detective. Professional roles and values allowed me to see that any nurse role can make an impact on the community level.

The program assisted me in developing my professional definition by letting me learn what community and population health is. I understand now that nursing is not just on an inpatient and outpatient setting but also on a community and population level. Just looking at a person and you can tell a lot about their community. These are all things I learned throughout the program and especially in the 2 courses on Community and Population Health. The program helped me learn the nuances of community and population health. That sometimes you have to dig deeper and investigate because not everything is as they may appear to be on first inspection. By learning about the role of the nurse as a detective and applying that to the skills I learned in community and population health, I am able to have a better understanding of the best ways to provide better care on a community level.

In Application of Community Health and Population Focused Nursing, working on task 1 helped me see that my work supported my definition of community and population health. The artifact supports my definition because I completed a needs assessment summary where I was able to determine the health needs and risks of the virtual community. I did this by using different tools such as the demographics assessment, neighborhood/community safety inventory, and windshield survey. All these are tools that help assess and analyze a community in depth and find potential risks and hazards in the community. This supports my definition of community and professional health.

I learned a lot during my community and population health nursing task. For one thing, I learned that a city’s neighborhood can each have different characteristics and tendencies. Some neighborhoods might have more crime, some more pollution, and some may have more resources. I found that speaking with the people within these neighborhoods is one of the best ways to assess the community and find out about the needs and problems the people have. This allows me to better identify potential risks and hazards so that they can be targeted to fix and improve. I also learned that completing a needs assessment summary is best accomplished using certain tools, such as a windshield survey and demographics assessment. It helps to organize all the information you come across and easily identify what community problems and hazards there are.

I learned that there are many factors that you do not normally consider when reaching a community diagnosis of obesity. One may not think about a lack of parks or a lack of nutritional guidance as factors that contribute to health issues, but this course taught me that it is things like this that can really show a lot about a community. By assessing the population and community, I was able to find risks and hazards that indicated a potential problem. By learning how to do this and reaching a diagnosis of obesity, I was able to understand the essence of community and population health.

My initial focus and diagnosis evolved as I worked with the population. At first I was focused on more short term issues such as gang violence and homelessness. I figured that these should be addressed first and would be important to address because they are visible and easily seen problems. After working with the population, I understood that it would be better to focus on a problem that is not as visible such as obesity. Even though it is not as apparent, mainly because it is such a prevalent problem that has almost become the norm, it does not make it any less important. In-fact, because of the consequences and pervasiveness of the issue, I decided it would be an excellent diagnosis to focus on.

When I received an American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) certificate, it was important because it demonstrated my competence which I can apply in my future nursing practice. I learned that genetics is crucial in discovering and testing for diseases and disorders and being able to understand this can potentially be used clinically when assessing patients. I can refer patients to a genetic counselor for follow up when indicated and this can potentially help patients detect diseases and disorders that otherwise may have been missed. I can also use what I learned in the nature versus nurture part of the course when assessing patients psychosocially. I can apply what I learned there to better understand the patient on a psychosocial perspective. Learning about the ethical implications of genetics and genomics also allows me to have a better perspective in the future should the topic ever arise. There may be ethical and moral dilemmas that patients or even I face, and understanding them is a major step in providing the best possible care as a clinical nurse.

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