ESSAY: Community Health

Assessment 1

Community Health

Prepare a 3 page report on a critical health issue in a community or state.

Describe the factors that contribute to the health issue and interventions that have been implemented.

Explain the scope and role of nursing in the interventions, and recommend ways the scope of the interventions might be expanded.

Community/public health nursing is nursing care that is population-focused and occurs in non-hospital settings.  Numerous nursing theories can provide the structure for community/public health nursing; however, nursing theories that incorporate components of the general systems theory frequently provide the framework for the practice of community/public health nursing.

Historically, nurses have made significant contributions to the field of public health.  From providing maternal-child care to poor women in the late 1800s, to promoting hygiene among school aged children in the early 1900s, to providing environmental and safety care to industrial workers during World War I, nurses have been instrumental in shaping health policies (Maurer & Smith, 2013). Today, community/public health nurses have a key role in identifying and developing plans of care to address local, national, and international health issues.

Show Less

Many factors influence the health of communities and populations, including national policies that focus on health promotion.  Healthy People, a major national health promotion program issued by the U.S. Surgeon General, identifies major health problems of the nation and sets national goals and objectives targeting health promotion (Maurer & Smith, 2013). If adopted, activities that target health promotion can result in disease prevention.

Reference

Maurer, F. A., & Smith, C. M. (2013). Community/public health nursing practice: Health for families and populations (5th ed.). St. Louis, MO: W. B. Saunders.

Resources

Schofield, R., Ganann, R., Brooks, S., McGugan, J., Bona, K. D., Betker, C., Dilworth, K., … Watson, C. (2011). Community health nursing vision for 2020: Shaping the future. Western Journal of Nursing Research, 33(8),1047–1068.

Maurer, F. A., & Smith, C. M. (2013). Community/public health nursing practice: Health for families and populations (5th ed.). St. Louis, MO: W. B. Saunders.

Chapters 1, 2, 3, 10, 18, and 20.

Mendez-Luck, C. A., Bethel, J. W., Goins, R. T., Schure, M. B., & McDermott, E. (2015). Community as a source of health in three racial/ethnic communities in Oregon: A qualitative study. BMC Public Health, 15(1), 1–10.

Galloway-Gilliam, L. (2013). Racial and ethnic approaches to community health. National Civic Review, 102(4), 46–48.

HealthyPeople.gov. (n.d.).  Healthy People 2020. Retrieved from http://www.healthypeople.gov/

Benson, G. A., Sidebottom, A., VanWormer, J. J., Boucher, J. L., Stephens, C., & Krikava, J. (2013). HeartBeat connections: A rural community of solution for cardiovascular health. Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine, 26(3), 299–310. Retrieved from http://www.jabfm.org/content/26/3/299.full.pdf+html

Assessment Instructions

Preparation

Suppose your organization is concerned about a number of health issues that have either affected an increased number of the residents in the community or show the probability of affecting a larger number of people in the population.  Your organizational leaders have asked different health care professionals within the organization, including you, to examine the issues from your perspective, and to submit a report that includes evidence-based ways to address the issues.

You will first need to identify a critical health care issue in your community or state.  You may choose either a public health issue, such as sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), measles, Lyme disease, asthma, et cetera; or a community health issue, such as uncontrolled diabetes, congestive heart disease, 30-day readmission, et cetera.

Feel free to choose whatever topic you are most comfortable writing about.

Then, look on the Internet for statistics and peer-reviewed or professional resources to use in preparing your report.

Requirements

Format this assessment as a professional report.  It may help to look at reports or other documents used within your organization and to follow that formatting.  You must still follow APA guidelines for in-text citations and references, and include a title page and reference page.

Within the report:

Describe one critical health issue in your community or state that has grown larger or has the potential to become larger.  Be sure to include any statistics available on the health issue.  Tip: check your county and/or state health department Web site.

Explain the factors that contribute to this health issue.  Consider things such as access to health care services, economics, culture, attitude, education, health care policies, and so on.

Describe any interventions your community or state has put in place to address the health care issue.  Include information on how long the interventions have been in place, how the community was made aware of the interventions, and so on.

Describe the scope and role of nursing and public health nursing in the interventions to reduce the health issue.

Recommend evidence-based ways the scope of the interventions could be expanded to increase positive health outcomes.  Think in terms of cost, efficiency and access, effectiveness, and the use of both conventional and unconventional interventions.

Additional Requirements

Complete your assessment using the following specifications:

Title page and reference page.

Number of pages: 3 (not  including the title and reference pages).

At least 3 current scholarly or professional resources.

APA format for citations and references.

Times New Roman font, 12-point, double-spaced.

Grading Points (What the professor is looking for within the paper for grading purposes)

1.  Explains the factors that contribute to a critical health care issue within a specific community, and clearly illustrates how the factors affect the critical health care issue.

2.  Describes current interventions to target a critical health care issue within a specific community, and includes details on duration, communication methods, and effectiveness.

3.  Explains how the scope and role of nursing in current interventions that target a critical health care issue contribute to positive health outcomes.

4.  Recommends evidence-based ways to expand the scope of interventions to target a critical health issue in terms of cost, efficiency and access, and effectiveness. Includes both conventional and unconventional interventions.

5.  Describes a critical health care issue within a specific community, and provides statistical information related to frequency, severity, and population most affected.

6.  Writes clearly and logically with correct use of spelling, grammar, punctuation, and mechanics; uses relevant evidence to support a central idea.

7.  Correctly formats citations and references, using current APA style with no errors.

ANSWER

Analyzing Hospital Readmission as One of Health Issues Affecting United States

                                                                Introduction

            Unnecessary hospital readmission has become one of the major concern to all healthcare stakeholders and policy makers in the United States over the recent years. In America, the associated cost of hospital readmission is estimated to be more than $39 billion per financial year (Diana et al, 2014). In a move to reduce this cost, the policy makers have been prompted to enact policies such as The Affordable Care Act (ACA) that penalize hospitals for readmission cases witnessed within 30 days after the first admission (Cloonan, Wood and Riley, 2013). In particular, health facilities have experienced reduction in Medicare financing in cases where certain patients are readmitted to the hospital within thirty days of discharge. In addition, enacting reforms in delivery and payment systems like accountable care organization and bundled payments have aimed at enhancing the transition of patient to post-acute setting from the acute care. This helps in reducing the number of hospital readmission cases. Reducing the rate of hospital readmission has been identified as one of the mechanisms to reduce the cost of Medicare and providing improved patient care.

            In the past, the focus has been on the payment reforms as a mechanism to reduce cases of avoidable hospital readmission. However, between 2012 and 2013, a research was performed in United State to investigate the major causes of hospital readmission. The main objective of the research was to investigate whether the readmission cases were preventable as well as investigating the major causes of hospital readmission. The researchers also identified an evidence-based approach to reduce the problem.

Factors That Contribute to High Cases of Hospital Readmission             Through numerous studies, various causes of hospital readmission have been identified. To begin with, premature discharge from hospital has been identified as a major cause of hospital readmission. Premature discharge entails discharge…