Health problem can affect the individuals’ quality of life and well-being. It is imperative to identify the key indicators of health and contributing factors in the community. This will enable the community to create an appropriate interventions, and essential actions to address health problems in a population. For this particular assignment, I chose Harwood Heights, Illinois to gather data and identify the major health problems and the contributing factors that the community is suffering from. According to Presence Resurrection Medical Center (2013), the leading causes of deaths in Harwood Heights are heart disease, and diabetes. Likewise, overweight or obesity, alcohol abuse, and tobacco use are an obvious concern in the community. A finding …show more content…
This will give the community and residents a greater understanding of the factors influencing the health in their community. Overall, I consider Harwood Heights a fairly healthy community with a room for improvement. The community is clean and the village is working on enforcing ordinances of proper disposal and collection to keep a clean and healthy living condition for the residents. Harwood Heights offers a variety of healthcare options and excellent school program that is a walking distance for the residents. The community is surrounded with many parks, playgrounds, and recreation areas that encourage physical activities. The sidewalks in the area are well-maintained that can be used by the public for walking, jogging, and bicycling. The community is supportive by providing environments that improve health and participate in healthy behaviors. The crime rates in the community is relatively low compared to Chicago overall, but it needs to be better. In addition, there is room for improvement with respect to healthy behaviors. According to Presence Resurrection Medical Center (2013), only 27% of the residents are eating the daily recommend servings of fruit and vegetable and 30% get no exercise in a normal week. Also, additional work needs to be accomplished when it comes to the general health of the residents of Harwood Heights: obesity, heart disease, diabetes, and alcohol and tobacco …show more content…
An ideal community must have a safe neighborhood and good access to recreation, healthy foods, medical services, affordable housing, and economic opportunity. . Nurses can play an important role in the community through health promotion and health prevention. It is imperative to utilize all the available resources and work collaboratively with other professionals and leaders to improve the overall health of the population. As the saying goes, “Good health does not begin with patients, it begins with families, friends, and communities” (Alliance of Community Health Plans,
Reviewing previously conducted county health assessments and reports is also important in evaluating the trend of the issue over the past few years. Conducting semi-structured individual interviews with key stakeholders from the community, senior Police Officer from Atlanta Police Department, Officer B. Mathew, and the Nurse Manager of Emory Rehabilitation Hospital, Mrs. Elizabeth Thomas, helped to gather data in an informal environment to obtain the most productive responses regarding their professional perspective of the priority community health issues.13 Finally, using creative tools such as windshield survey of the streets of Fulton county and photovoice of the houses and living environment of the certain areas in the county helps to identify and explore the community, its needs, its strengths, and its priority concerns through visual observations and
Schmidt, C. (2004). In our community: One vision followed by thousands. Lippincott's Nursing Center.com,104(8), 36-37. Retrieved from http://www.nursingcenter.com/lnc/JournalArticle?Article_ID=517471
The city of Philadelphia is much more than just a city. It is a complex web of
According to Allender, Rector, and Warner (2014), public health is a combination of both an art and a science (2014). The mission of public health nursing is to promote health, prevent disease and ultimately prolong life (Allender et al., 2014). In order for this to occur an assessment must take place. An aggregate or community assessment begins with a collection of data. This includes: the community’s health needs, risks, environmental conditions, financial resources through local census data, and a windshield survey (Allender et al., 2014). Through public health nursing, communities can collectively come together to help promote an overall better health standing.
Self- care abilities of individuals and communities are important to promote mental and physical health and to reduce mortality and morbidity that occur from accidental injuries and chronic conditions (Dillion, 1997). Lifestyle changes have an effect on health prevention and delay of diseases and health problems. Dillion states if nurses use strategies from community nursing and objects from Healthy People 2000 they can identify threats to health promote and maintain health. Dillion states a key strategy is a health fair (Dillion,
The overall health scores are based on determinants as well as outcomes. Behavioral determinants include: smoking, binge drinking, drug deaths, obesity, physical inactivity, and high school graduation rate. Community and environmental determinants include: violent crime, occupational fatalities, infectious diseases, children in poverty, and air pollution. Public and health policy determinants include: lack of health insurance, public health funding, and number of adolescent and children immunizations. Clinical care determinants include: accessibility to early prenatal care, availability of primary care physicians and dentists, and preventable hospitalizations. Finally, several different outcomes are used to determine the overall score. Those include: development of diabetes, poor mental and physical health days, disparity in health status, infant mortality, cardiovascular disease, cancer deaths, and premature deaths.
Diagnosing and investigating health problems and health hazards in the community. Informing, educating and empowering the people about health issues. Mobilizing community partnerships to identify and solve health problems. Health assessments also develop policies and plans that support individual and community health efforts. They also enforce laws and regulations that help protect health and ensure safety (Thivierge, 2016). Assessments link people to needed personal health services and assure the provision of health care when otherwise unavailable. Public health assessments can help to assure the public of the competency of the public health and personal health care workforce. These assessments evaluate effectiveness, accessibility and quality of personal and population-based health services (Thivierge,
Maurer, F., & Smith, C. (2005). Community/public health nursing practice: Health for families and populations (3rd ed.). Retrieved from http://books.google.com
During one of my undergraduate courses, “Community and Population Health”, I completed a paper on my community and access to healthcare. During the research and community outreach performed to meet the goals of the paper, my eyes were opened to the plight of small communities in regards to access to quality healthcare. This plight has become my passion, and has formed the basis for my vision of the Family Nurse Practitioner role.
Healthy People 2020 is a program for the promotion of health and the prevention of diseases, launched by the Department of Health and Human Services in December 2010. According to healthypeople.gov, this program has four overarching goals which are first to achieve healthy, longer lives free of preventable diseases, injuries, and premature deaths; to achieve health fairness, eliminate differences, and improve all groups’ health; also to produce social and physical environments that encourage good health; and last but not least to promote life’s quality, healthy development, and healthy behaviors through all life stages. This program has a vision of a community where people live long, healthy lives. Healthy People 2020 offers a comprehensive set of 10 years of nationwide goals and objectives that is meant to improve the health of the American population. Healthy People 2020 covers 42 topic areas with approximately 600 objectives, which include 1,200 measures. A smaller set of Healthy People 2020 objectives, has been designated to communicate high-priority health issues and actions that can be taken to address them, this objectives are called Leading Health Indicators. The program goes above and beyond these health indicators in order to provide the best care for the people of this country. These indictors cover from the access of health service, nutrition, physical activity, and obesity to substance abuse, environmental quality, injury and violence.
Today, there is a prolonging problem with primary health care in low-income urban populations. As a group low-income people suffer from having meager health outcomes than the larger population of those with less dense area of living and as well higher incomes. Low-income people suffer disproportionately from health problems related to physical inactivity. People from households with incomes below $15,000 are much more likely to be diagnosed with diabetes or asthma, to be obese, and to be at risk for health problems related to lack of exercise than people from households with incomes above $50,000. Socioeconomic conditions commonly confronted by low-income people such as polluted environments, inadequate housing, absence of public transportation,
The purpose of this community profile is to discuss a particular health improvement issue within a chosen community. A community can be defined using many different terms. You can belong to a community through religious beliefs. Through shared experiences or interests. You can belong to a political community where all involved share the same political interests. A community can also be defined as ‘a family’ a small village where many have lived most of their lives who share the same desire to belong to that community.
There are numerous public health problems that can be addressed in my Southside of Chicago community. Among the several public health problems facing my Southside of Chicago community there are two that are more urgent. Health education or one might say lack thereof is a problem that needs to be addressed. My community is plagued with many of the residents suffering from high blood pressure, diabetes, and the killer virus known as HIV. In most cases these conditions can be prevented with healthier lifestyles and access to nutritious organic foods. In addition, environmental health is another urgent problem my community is facing. Access to clean, safe water and air is supposed to be a fundamental human right aimed at a healthy environment. Yet, my community consists a waste contaminated beach, numerous deteriorated building that are still occupied, and a countless number of restaurant and stores supplying our residents with services that are endangering their health.
Nursing entails self- directed and cooperative health care for the society at large in all contexts. It includes the promotion of appropriate practices to enhance health, prevention of diseases,
An idea of a healthy community with a safe environment, accessibility to preventive health care services and screenings, education on health promotion that is stress-free and accessible and healthier grocery stores. Characteristics of a healthy community are ideas, activities, and resolutions derived from partnerships of diverse groups, regular self-evaluation that is part of the practice, which is the focus. A diversity of strategies, techniques, documents, and other resources would have to be executed to support and make a healthy community. If an individual 's knowledge of a healthy community is different from his or her belief then community strategy must be put in place in order to begin to achieve the goal of improving health. Community strategy must be supported by the individuals who are working together in order to be successful (Matthew, et al, 2001). In order for a strategy to become effective, a consistent plan should be created with achievable goals within a community. Also individuals that are strong, inspired, and truthful and determined should also carry out the