Response to peer discussion board

Please create a response blog to my classmate! APA format is required

Question Number 1.

Review the 10 essential public health services

             The ten essential public health services serve as a guideline for public health nurses to follow when caring for their community. The public health services focus on the need of health problem education, developing local policies, implementing laws, creating relationships among the community, and evaluating the communities’ health status.

How do managed care organizations benefit from having a public health nurse on staff?      

            After reviewing the textbook, and the essential public health services and selected nursing activities, I was amazed to learn about the roles and responsibilities of a public health nurse. There are many different benefits to having a public health nurse as part of staffing such as being able to monitor and identify different health issues and illnesses in the community, tracking and studying the public population and health conditions, providing insight from a community standpoint regarding acute health issues, and being able to provide numerous resources to staff and patients regarding health prevention and disease management topics.  

            Public health nurses are professionals in research and they understand the importance of evidence based practice. They utilize evidence-based research to help protect the health in the community and to also strengthen the health of the public. According to Weum, Bragstad, and Glavin (2018),“public health nurses’ rank their sources of knowledge, it showed that the four most frequently used sources were national plans and guidelines, knowledge acquired while training as a public health nurse, personal experience, and guidelines and procedures issued by their local authorities” (p. 8).  Public health nurses focus more on the prevention of diseases and incidents rather than on the care that is required after diseases and incidents occur (Anderson and McFarlane, 2015). According to Teodorowski, Cable, Kilburn, and Kennedy (2019), “community nurses are expected to deliver evidence-based practice, which is challenging given the diversity and breadth of the evidence base from which they can draw” (p. 370). Due to today’s increase in patient access to online health information, it is important for public health nurses to retrieve their information from evidenced-based sources such as the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention and World Health Organization websites.

How could population-based community nursing help prevent these problems – death, disease, or injury?

            Community nursing is able to help prevent all three of these topics. These nurses are able to be a resource and also track and educate the community on communicable and sexually transmitted diseases, the importance of wellness checks, and disease prevention. As stated in the previous question, public health nurses focus on prevention. A way to prevent disease would be for the patient to get a wellness check-up and then be provided information on potential diseases they are at risk for. It is imperative that the patient understand the importance of a healthy diet, medication compliance, daily exercise, and cessation of tobacco and alcohol use. All this information would be provided to the patient to help prevent diseases and also for early detection of illnesses. Disease prevention and proper illness management leads to a decrease in deaths in the community. Public health nurses are able to provide education to the public through public health fairs, wellness programs, and different health promotion services such as exercise and cooking classes (Anderson and McFarlane, 2015).

            A way for public health nurses to prevent injury in their communities is to review transportation and motor vehicle safety, gun safety, and water safety. Transportation and motor vehicle safety includes car seat and seatbelt regulations, how to prevent alcohol/drug driving incidents, and by providing public transportation resources and safety tips. Gun safety for the community would include weapon handling safety courses for the public to attend. Prevention of water related accidents would include proper lifejacket education, prevention of drowning incidents in people of all ages, and what to do if a drowning occurs.

             Public health nurses can prevent death, disease, and injury in their communities by continuing to be “teachers, advocates, monitors, catalysts, and educators” (Anderson and McFarlane, 2015, p. 27).

Questions for Peers:

What are some examples of ways that a public health nurse could implement the ten public health services?

In your community, what could you do to promote disease prevention and management?

Resources

Anderson, E. T., & McFarlane, J. (2015). Community as partner: Theory and practice in nursing (7th ed., pp. 22-27). Philadelphia, PA: Wolters Kluwer.

Teodorowski, P., Cable, C., Kilburn, S., & Kennedy, C. (2019). Enacting evidence-based practice: Pathways for community nurses. British Journal of Community Nursing, 24(8), 370–376.https://doi.org/10.12968/bjcn.2019.24.8.370

Weum, M., Bragstad, L. K., & Glavin, K. (2018). How public health nurses use sources of knowledge. Norwegian Journal of Clinical Nursing / Sykepleien Forskning, 1–23.https://doi.org/10.4220/Sykepleienf.2017.64242

BLOG RUBRIC

Criteria Percentage	100 – 93 Superior	92 – 83 Excellent	84 – 78 Satisfactory	77 Unsatisfactory	0 Incomplete
Ideas and content 80%	Post provides comprehensive insight, understanding, and reflective thoughts and offers new ideas. Post is well supported with details that explain the participant’s conclusions in connection to the topic.	Post provides moderate insight, understanding, and reflective thought about the topic. Post offers new ideas that connect to the topic but does not explain the participant’s conclusions.	Post provides limited insight, understanding, and reflective thought about the topic. Few connections are made between ideas and although new insights are offered, they are not fully developed or explained.	Post was incomplete, had inaccuracies or insights were not presented. No connections are made between ideas and the topic.	No posting is provided or post is irrelevant or factually inaccurate. Displays no evidence of engagement with the course material(s).
Engagement with Course Material(s) 15%	Post reflects in-depth engagement with the course material(s).	Post reflects moderate engagement with the course material(s).	Post reflects minimal engagement with the course material(s).	Post reflects superficial or nonexistent engagement with the course material(s).	Displays no evidence of engagement with the course material(s).
Clarity and Mechanics 5%	Post is well-organized, clear. No spelling, grammar, or punctuation errors.	Post is well-organized, clear. 1-2 spelling, grammar, or punctuation errors.	Post is reasonably organized, clear. 3-4 spelling, grammar, or punctuation errors.	Post is unfocused or simply restates thoughts from previous sources. 5-6 spelling, grammar, or punctuation errors.	Unclear, disorganized post. 6 or more spelling, grammar, or punctuation errors.