What is the difference between community/public health providers and medical providers?
Community/public health focuses on health promotion and health
... [Show More] maintenance of individuals, families, and groups within the community; whereas medical care providers focus on disease diagnosis and management
How is the health status of a community determined? (Determinate's of health)
-Health care access
-Economic conditions
-Social and environmental issues
-Cultural practices
It is essential for the community health nurse to understand the determinants of health and recognize the interaction of the factors that lead to disease, death, and disability
Community health nurses must work to identify patterns of disease and death and to advocate for activities and policies that promote health at the individual, family, and population levels
What are indicators of health and illness?
Used to measure the health of the community:
-Local or state health departments
-Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) provide morbidity, mortality, and other health status-related data
Data collected may be useful in analyzing health patterns over time, comparing communities from different geographic regions, or comparing different aggregates within a community.
Community health nurses should be aware of health patterns and health indicators within their practice and identify areas for further investigation and intervention through an understanding of health, disease, and mortality patterns
What is public health?
Public Health is the science and art of:
-Preventing disease
-Prolonging life
-Promoting health and efficiency through organized community effort
What is community health?
Extends the realm of public health to include organized health efforts at the community level through both government and private efforts (such as the American Heart Association and the American Red Cross)
1. Mary Jo and her colleagues regularly assess the health care needs of the community. The most effective way to assess the healthcare needs of the people on the reservation is to:
a. Conduct personal interviews with local primary care providers and social workers
b. Rely on intuitive impressions obtained from working with the people of the community
c. Review demographic data from the most recent census
d. Survey a random sample of former community residents
A
What are the essential public health services?
-Monitor health status to identify and solve community health problems
-Diagnose and investigate health problems and health hazards
-Inform, educate, and empower people about health issues
-Mobilize community partnerships and actions to identify and solve health problems
-Develop policies and plans that support individual and community health efforts
-Enforce laws and regulations that protect health and ensure safety
-Link people to needed personal health services and assure the provision of health care when otherwise unavailable
-Assure a competent public health and personal health care workforce
-Evaluate effectiveness, accessibility, and quality of personal and population-based health services
-Research for new insights and innovative solutions to health problems
What is the primary level of prevention?
Is directed at preventing a problem before it occurs by altering susceptibility or reducing exposure for susceptible individuals
-Immunizations, exercise, smoking cessation
What is the secondary level of prevention?
Refers to early detection and prompt intervention during the period of early disease pathogenesis; implemented after a problem has begun but before signs symptoms appear and targets these populations that have risk factors
-Any screenings or check ups, anything to slow the process (detection and intervention)
What is the tertiary level of prevention?
Targets populations that have experienced disease or injury and focuses on limitation of disability and rehabilitation; aims are to keep health problems from getting worse, to reduce the effects of disease and injury, and to restore individuals to their optimal level of functioning
-maintaining quality of life and reduce the effects of the disease
Ex.) cardiac rehab program
The major goal of the community health nurse is to provide:
A. Primary health care
B. Health promotion and health maintenance
C. Health education and teaching services
D. Knowledge skill and methods of public health service
B
Rationale: The major goal of the community health nurse is to preserve the health of the community and surrounding populations by focusing on health promotion and health maintenance of individuals, families, and groups within the community. Community health nurses may provide health education and teaching services as part of providing health promotion and disease prevention to communities. Providing primary care and educating about methods of public health services are not major goals of the community health nurse
Mary Jo and her colleagues regularly assess the health care needs of the community. The most effective way to assess the healthcare needs of the people on the reservation is to:
A. Conduct personal interviews with local primary care providers and social workers
B. Rely on intuitive impressions obtained from working with the people of the community
C. Review demographic data from the most recent census
D. Survey a random sample of former community residents
A.
Rationale: Local primary care providers and social services professionals have first-hand knowledge of the current health status of the residents in the community. Intuitive impressions may not be accurate. Demographic data may not be current and will not paint a complete picture of the current health status of the community. Relying on former residents may provide inaccurate information.
Mary Jo is spearheading a campaign aimed at health promotion on the reservation. She knows the following is an example of secondary prevention:
A. A community-wide nutrition program in school cafeterias
B. A program to identify and treat persons exposed to tuberculosis within two weeks of exposure
C. Alcoholic Anonymous
D. An exercise program for people who have had a stroke
B.
Rationale: Secondary prevention is implemented after a problem occurs but before signs and symptoms appear. Primary prevention activities are aimed at preventing a problem before it occurs, such as holding a nutrition program at a school cafeteria. Tertiary prevention is aimed at preventing complications or to keep health problems from getting worse. Alcoholics Anonymous and an exercise program for stroke victims are examples of tertiary prevention.
A foodborne illness has struck residents of the reservation twice in the past year during large festivals. The environmental health official has requested that Mary Jo be included in the evaluation of the food preparation for the next festival. Mary Jo's primary concern is to:
A. Educate the people preparing the food about safe food preparation practices
B. Ensure the cooks understand various microorganisms
C. Identify other resources for food services
D. Promote the health of the residents affected by the outbreak
A.
Rationale: The community health nurse's role is to promote health and prevent disease. Mary Jo's concern in this case is to educate about safe food preparation practices in order to prevent another food borne illness outbreak. Teaching the cooks about various microorganisms will not prevent disease outbreak. Identifying other resources for food services does not address the problem of unsafe food preparation practices. Promoting the health of the residents affected by the outbreak is important but not the primary role of the community health nurse in this scenario.
What is Endemic?
Diseases that are always present in the population (colds and pneumonia)
What is an Epidemic?
Diseases that are not always present in the population but flare up on occasion (diphtheria and measles)
-Spreads through one or several communities
What is a Pandemic?
The existence of a disease in a large portion of the population - a global epidemic (HIV, AIDS, annual outbreaks of influenza type A)
-spreads throughout the world
Explain the evolution of early public health efforts in the 19th century
*Communicable diseases ravaged the population that lived in unsanitary conditions
-Edwin Chadwick examined death rates by occupation and class in England
Public health laws were enacted in 1849:
-Healthy mental and physical development of citizens
-Prevention of all dangers to health
-Control of disease
-John Snow demonstrated the transmission of cholera via the public water source
In the United States:
-Waves of epidemics continued to spread
-Lemuel Shattuck published vital statistics in Massachusetts; he called for modern public health reform
- The first Board of Health was formed in response 19 years later
-The newly formed AMA was asked to collected vital statistics - 1848
*Efforts focused on determinants of health and approaches to health management
-The advent of "modern" health care occurred [Show Less]