Introduction
Public health nursing is concerned with promoting health and wellness, preventing illness, and enhancing the quality of life in their communities via the continual monitoring and evaluation of many factors that influence health. CHNs create intervention strategies to meet the requirements of people and communities concerning their health, safety, and overall quality of life. In addition, they may detect health issues affecting a particular group, carry out community assessments to discover possible problems, and plan or administer health education programs to help people stay healthier. Public health nursing provides knowledge and skills that concentrate on the needs of communities and vulnerable people and focuses care on those groups.
Health promotion and disease prevention are the main key aspects of nursing practice. A community health promotion program focuses on promoting healthy lifestyles and preventing disease in the community. Individuals, families, groups, and communities benefit from health promotion efforts. C/PHNs also have a significant focus on disease prevention as an additional component. The primary, secondary, and tertiary interventions are the preventative levels used in nursing practice
Prevention
Primary prevention eliminates the possibility of a health issue developing; it refers to all preventative actions performed to shield someone from being sick or injured. Professionals in community and public health who practice primary prevention must look into the future and anticipate possible issues before they arise to devise strategies to prevent them. For instance, instructing young individuals in healthy lifestyle choices so that they may instill those same behaviors in their children and continue to practice them themselves as they become older.
Secondary prevention entails attempting to identify and treat pre-existing health issues at the earliest feasible stage, which is when intervention will be most likely to be successful in containing or eliminating the condition in question. When it comes to heart disease prevention, screenings for hypertension and cholesterol in the community may assist in identifying those who are at risk and urge them to seek treatment early on. In tertiary prevention, an effort is made to lessen the scope and severity of a health condition to the most significant degree feasible to minimize impairment and restore or preserve function. One example would be early treatment and management when it comes to preventing or delaying the onset of diabetes-related complications.
Roles of Community Health Nurses
Clinician Role
In public/community health, a nurse’s clinical job is to ensure that everyone gets good health care. The emphasis of the clinician position differs from that of primary nursing. In this case, it is essential to keep in mind the importance of holistic care, health promotion, and professional development for clinicians.
- Holistic approach: Approaching health care from a holistic perspective entails considering a person’s physical, emotional, social, and spiritual needs as part of a more extensive system rather than an individual.
- Health promotion: The CHN offers health care services, but it majorly focuses on health promotion and other disease control and prevention methods.
- Skill Expansion: In nursing practice, psychological and societal issues necessitates a diverse set of competencies such as the ability to provide counseling effectively.
Educator Role
Educators have a unique opportunity to reach a wider audience. They have a more significant impact on public health because of two factors: First, community members are less likely to be suffering from a severe illness, making it easier for them to take in and act on health information. One might potentially communicate with a more significant number of people. Nursing has the ability and duty to establish educational programs that address community needs and aim to have a broad influence on the community instead of focusing just on individual patients or small groups.
Activist Role
Due to the existing health care system’s tendency to favor the poor and uninsured, the CHN often serves as a spokesman for patients, advocating for their interests and taking action on their behalf. Clients benefit from this since the system is more responsive.
Manager Role
As a manager, the nurse helps clients accomplish their objectives by analyzing their requirements, planning and arranging to fulfill those needs, leading and guiding to achieve outcomes, regulating and reviewing progress, and evaluating that goals are reached.
Collaborator Role
Taking on the role of a collaborator, CHNs join forces with others to work together on a similar goal as if they were partners. The success of community/public health practice relies on this collaborative leadership and collegiality.
Leadership Role
CHNs want to be change agents to better the public’s health. Health-related issues and the variables that affect them are also a primary focus for these organizations.
Researcher role
All CHNs may participate in research by posing questions and seeking answers based on solid data. To find solutions to issues and improve community/public health practice, CHNs conduct a systematic inquiry, gathering, and analysis of relevant data. Some CHNs participate in further research conducted in collaboration with other health professionals.
Conclusion
CHNs create intervention strategies to meet the requirements of people and communities concerning their health, safety, and quality of life. C/PHNs also have a significant focus on disease control and prevention. Some of the preventive levels used in nursing practice include primary, secondary, and tertiary levels. A nurse’s clinical job in public health is to ensure that everyone gets good health care. Community/public health nurses (CHNs) aim to be change agents to better the public’s health. The CHN serves as a spokesman for patients, advocating for their interests and taking action on their behalf.
References
Rector, C., & Stanley, M. J. (2020). Community and public health nursing. Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.