Reply 1

It is important to work together with community stakeholders for the community health nurse to provide health promotion to the community population. “A community health worker (CHW) is a frontline public health worker who is a trusted member or has a particularly good understanding of the community served” (cdc.gov, 2016). Community stakeholders are residents, community groups, church groups, government workers, business owners, and neighborhood leaders and they influence the community to live in a healthy environment. There are many factors affecting the health of that community which are number and availability of health care institutions and services, police and fire departments, waste disposal services and locations, air and water pollution, health education services and dissemination, violent crimes and drug use. Nurse who practice community-based nursing provide interventions to manage acute or chronic health problems, promote health, and facilitate self-care. Nursing care provided within a community must be culturally competent and family centered. It is important to consider community resources as part of a community assessment because they can help community health nurse to implement health promotion activities and educate the community as needed. Primary and secondary health promotion can be achieved by their help. They also aid for funding community health promotion activities. So, it is important for these resources to be considered when working with community population.

References

CDC – Community Health Worker Resources – STLT Gateway. (2016, August 18). Retrieved September 02, 2020, from https://www.cdc.gov/publichealthgateway/chw/index.html

Reply 2

The community health nurse plays a vital role within the community and partners strategically with other community stakeholders in getting resources to the public for health promotion. The community health nurse contributes and participates in several ways: “Advocates for the health of populations, establishes credibility with the community, concentrates on an aggregate or groups to improve the health of all, seeks prevention of illness, acts as a role model for leadership in provisions of health, fosters community organization, applies the ethical theory of utilitarianism—making choices for “the greater good”, incorporates epidemiologic knowledge and methods, conducts health assessment for entire populations for prevalence of disease, risk factors, self-perceived health status, functional ability, and psychological stressors, demonstrates versatility in dynamic collaborative environments, exhibits cultural competence with diverse populations, designs interventions for specific populations and evaluates outcomes of interventions” (Populations As Clients 2018).

As part of the community assessment, the nurse should assess what resources are available to the community and through what stakeholders in the community. This evaluation can be done via structured interviews, observations, public records, or databases. This is an important part of understanding the population, its’ health benefits and challenges, the resources available the populations health behaviors. The community nurse and the community stakeholders both play a vital role in the health promotion of the population. The outcomes can be even better when these components of the community work together for this common goal.

References:

Populations As Clients. (2018). Retrieved September 02, 2020, from https://lc.gcumedia.com/nrs427vn/community-and-public-health-the-future-of-health-care/v1.1/