Epidemiology in Community Health Nursing Practice

Epidemiology in Community Health Nursing Practice

Introduction

This research proposal is conducted by a community health nurse, who is responsible for teaching and developing prenatal classes in the community health unit. This health unit currently consists of the majority of women over 30 and experiencing their first pregnancy. These women are career oriented women who are motivated enough and sincere to their jobs. However, being pregnant has created a lot of implications and has put them in a difficult position. They don't want to compromise on their career neither do they want to risk their pregnancy. These are confused times for them. If they fail to understand what is actually going on and refuse to admit the fact that their physical self is going to change, which in turn is going to affect their work and they may end up losing something very important to them. Also that as this is a mature pregnancy; they would have to be extra careful about a lot of things which we are going to cover in the discussion phase. Thus this research is to provide them with better guidelines on how to cope up with the exhausting schedule during such a sensitive time.

Discussion

The following study is an observational epidemiologic study design. It concentrates on the changes in maternal characteristics. The study is a passive investigator and examines the relationship of maternal changes on population level data in the passage of more than 20 years. Histories are compared; the statistics and causes are highlighted and preventions are concentrated upon. Guidelines are made and following them would lead to better results and a better future.

There have been rapid changes in maternal characteristics in Nova Scotia between 1988 and 2001. These not only involve the weight but also the age factor that comes in to play when pregnant, as the more the age, the higher the level of risk gets of complications in pregnancy and preterm births. The difficulties also include restricted fetal growth, perinatal mortality and a high rate of cesarean delivery. This may further lead to increased hospital costs because of longer length of post pantrum stay. Pregnancy at increasing ages in Canada from 1984 to 1996 led to increased or unchanged rates of fetal or infant death due to chromosomal anomalies even with the increased choices of selective pregnancy termination and prenatal diagnosis. Another major issue is the problem with maternal smoking. Even though there have been a reduction, the rate still remains high despite the negative effects it imposes on the woman as well the child. Certain surveys in Nova Scotia show that the prevalence of smoking among woman is somewhere between 24% to 29% (Poulin C, et al, 2002). The only difference is that getting pregnant at such an early age may reflect behavioral changes including excessive smoking, sexual intercourse without any planning, inconsistent use of condoms, several different sexual partners leading to pregnancy.

The general findings of this report reflect the true nature of today's modern ...