The importance of community health issues cannot be underestimated because they are directly related to the health indicators in the entire nation. A community holistic health cannot be attained when issues that impediment health care delivery are addressed in a proper manner. According to Booth and Luker (1999) and Sines and Saunders (2009), “the goal of Community Health Nursing is to assist the individual, family and community in attaining their highest level of holistic health”. Whereas national health care policies can be effective in addressing the health needs of a community, local policies at grassroots levels have the capacity to address health issues better. This is because they strive to take keen cognizance of the unique characteristics and health demands of a particular community.
In reading a recent article on Emergency Department sees critical capacities and Flu Deaths Expected to Rise; I was surprised by the fact that most of this article’s contents are closely related to my study materials and the extent to which they strive to address a myriad of community issues. The first article “Emergency Department sees critical capacities” simply but articulately presents a widespread problem of access to health care services within the community. The article opens the problem low-income individuals face in their attempts to access medical care. This has historically been described as the inequality in health care service delivery that has affected the health indicators of the community.
In addition to the above, the article presents health care promotion initiatives and disease prevention. This is because of the concern that the ED has become inundated with individuals seeking health care most of who do not have emergent conditions but are unable to access health care through other means. Grass root community initiatives that have the capacity to empower members of the community in understanding particular symptoms of a disease are important. This will assist in preventing neighborhood Hospital from running over capacity and putting the entire hospital area in unsafe situation. These are community problems that impact negatively on the quality of health care services (Poulton, Patton & Curran, 2007). This article therefore achieves great measure of demonstration of community health care nursing and addressing a myriad of community health issues.
The second article “Flu Deaths Expected to Rise” on the other presents news of an impending health problem to the community. The fundamental reason that makes this article relevant to community health nursing is the type of disease contained in the message. The management of a highly infectious disease such as Flu demands the greater role of the community nurse and best nursing practices to control. The article proceeds to inform the community on the groups that are at higher risk of contacting the disease. The provision of statistics on related deaths from the similar medical complication is a pointer to the level of devastation it might inflict in the community. Last, the article proceeds to illustrate the levels of health professionals’ preparedness in combating the Flu.
It can be discerned and confidently stated from the above discussions that the two articles are not only relevant to community health nursing but also address a myriad of public health and community health issues. This is best achieved by the simplicity of the presentation and brief manner in which the messages are articulated in the articles. The above articles present us with a rich area for further exploration where the above studies can be replicated in other communities with similar challenges.
References
Booth, K. and Luker, K.A. (1999). A practical handbook for community health nurses: working with children and their parents. Washington: Wiley-Blackwell.
Poulton, B., Patton, L. and Curran, C. (2007). Community Health Nursing: Current Practices and Possible Futures. Web.
Sines, D. and Saunders, M. (2009). Community Health Care Nursing. New York: John Wiley and Sons.