Role of Nurses in Community Health

Role of Nurses in Community Health

In order to promote health in the public, multiple strategies and procedures work in unison to improve the environment, health knowledge and reduce the spread of illness in the community. Nurses in leadership roles have made significant progress in important components of health care interventions (Kean et. al. 2008). Our topic of discussion in this assignment concerns to the different roles played by community nurses, and step by step evaluation of their implemented planning in promotion of health in the community.

Role of Nurses in Contemporary Community: Planning, Implementation and Evaluation

Now, in order to better understand our topic, we would go over the role of community nurses and how their services can assist in improving lives of affected individuals in a community. Today nurses are contributing in generalized and at specialized levels in community health, health education, in immunization clinics, disaster and emergency preparedness (Brookes et. al. 2007). Nurses have precise practical skills needed to plan, implement, and evaluate public health processes (Stanhope et. al. 2008). During an endemic, nurses are called by public health departments to develop strategies to protect people from contagious diseases and also for administration of mass vaccination (Brookes et. al. 2007).

The Nursing Process is a four stage ongoing cycle of Assessment; Planning; Implementation and Evaluation. A consequence of not doing this may mean that information important to the patient's recovery may be overlooked (Philis et. al. 2004). For example, on assessing a Diabetic female, the nurse may discover that she is a single mother of three young children, existing on benefits. It would not then be appropriate to advise her to join a gym, as realistically, she would be unable to afford this and may not have anyone to provide childcare. Instead, the nurse may start by encouraging her to begin walking daily. It may also become apparent that she is suffering from depression which requires referral to a psychologist (Philis et. al. 2004).

Inequality in health care and irregular insurance coverage has increased morbidity and mortalities in vulnerable populations like pregnant women and infants. Children's health is still challenged by environmental poisons and injuries (Stanhope et. al. 2008). They ensure that pregnant mothers are helped by administering neonatal assessment, newborn vaccination and screening. Apart from contribution of nurses in National Immunization Programs, they also construct strategies for promoting vaccination in underserved, free and accessible to ...