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Community Health Nursing Paper

NURS 473- Nursing Community Interactions 2

Purpose of Assignment
The purpose of this assignment is to involve students in the comprehensive community
needs assessment. Students will develop/utilize tools to identify perceived factors (both negative
and positive) that impinge on the population’s health. This information will then be used to
develop and implement strategies for health promotion.

Student Approach to Assignment


Decreasing stroke death in the city of Portsmouth was our main goal as a community
health group. Collectively, we wanted to emphasize how individuals can maintain a healthy and
quality lifestyle through prevention, detection, and treatment of stroke. Using these three factors
as our our primary focus in developing an intervention for stroke prevention in the city of
Portsmouth, we decided to plan a focus group. When designing our focus group, our goal was to
educate this population on identifying and controlling their modifiable risk factors for stroke and
to reduce stroke death. Through this assignment, I learned the importance of reaching out to the
community, and the significance of learning their wants and needs.

Reason for Inclusion of this Assignment in the Portfolio

This required portfolio assignment shows my growth understanding in the field of community
health, and highlights how important it is in my future nursing career. The program objectives
are as follows:

 Critical Thinking
 Engages in creative problem solving
 In this paper, we discussed that in 2014, the PHD conducted a Community Health
Survey (CHS) of Portsmouth that found that factors such as diabetes, obesity,
unhealthy eating habits, poor physical activity, and smoking were the most prevalent
in this area, as well as our aggregate is predominantly African American and of low
socioeconomic status. Using these risk factors and critical thinking, we decided that
this community is at a huge risk for stroke and stroke death. From this, we were able
to problem solve and design a plan to help the community reduce strokes.

 Nursing Practice
 Applies appropriate knowledge of major health problems to guide nursing practice
 In this paper, we discussed how over the course of six months, data was collected on
the members of our aggregate in Portsmouth and the risk for stroke was identified as
one of the biggest health concerns. Using the information we previously gained and
what new information we learned, we were able to plan achievable and measurable
objectives for our aggregate. For example: Knowing what causes stroke, one of our
main nursing practice interventions was daily blood pressure monitoring and weekly
weight monitoring
 Performs therapeutic interventions that incorporate principles of quality management
and proper safety techniques
 Our goal when performing the interventions was to make the participants comfortable
and to feel welcomed. We decided to perform them in their city of Portsmouth at like
a recreation center or church. Our focus groups contained a limited number of
participants in order to reduce participants from feeling overwhelmed and allowing
everyone a chance to speak. For quality management, we had one of us be the
mediator, which was in charge of ensuring only one person speaks at a time and that
everyone has a chance to speak. In regards to safety, we were not allowed to video or
record the focus groups, we were not allowed to ask personal questions, and we were
not allowed to ask for last names, and these applied to them as well.
 Establishes and/or utilizes outcome measures to evaluate the effectiveness of care
 In this paper, we discussed that the objective of the focus groups was to evaluate
public perception about chronic diseases, how they are able to contribute to their
health, and barriers they feel affect their health. To measure the effectiveness of the
focus group, one question we asked was if they “felt more aware of their ability to
make a change in the community, their health, their lifestyle,” and based on their
answers, we would keep or make changes to future focus groups. Also, based on their
answers to other questions, we were able to evaluable the effectiveness of any care
they were already receiving.

 Communication
 Adapts communication methods to patients with special needs
 As for special needs with this group, we faced things like low health literacy, poor
availability of participants and support personnel, social factors, economic factors,
and environmental factors. The biggest special need would be the health literacy
because we really had to narrow our questions down to the simplest of terms to
ensure the participants were understanding the questions and to prevent inaccurate
results.
 Expresses oneself and communicates effectively with diverse groups and disciplines using
a variety of media
 Using media such as posters, incentives, ads, websites, etc., we reached out to
participants and expressed our needs of the focus group to the diverse group of
Portsmouth. Communicating with this group, we really had to narrow our topics
down to matters that this group could understand in order to prevent poor feedback.

 Teaching
 Provides teaching to patients and/or professionals about health care procedures and
technologies in preparation for and following nursing or medical interventions
 For the focus groups, we had to educate before and after the interventions. In
preparation for, we had to educate on things like what a chronic disease is or a
primary care provider, and then after the focus groups, we taught things like blood
pressure testing, identifying stroke risk factors, signs and symptoms of a stroke,
potential post-stroke deficits, and prophylactic measures.
 Uses information technologies and other appropriate methods to communicate health
promotion, risk reduction, and disease prevention across the life span
 Using maps, data, ads, and the Portsmouth Health Department, we were able to
communicate the need for blood pressure testing, identifying stroke risk factors, signs
and symptoms of a stroke, potential post-stroke deficits, and prophylactic measures in
order to decrease strokes and prevent stroke death in the city of Portsmouth.
 Evaluates the efficacy of health promotion and education modalities for use in a variety
of settings with diverse populations
 Through our questionnaire used in our focus group in Portsmouth, we were able to
evaluate the effectiveness of health promotion and the education provided. By asking
the questions of “Do you feel you are more aware of your ability to make a change in
your community, your health, your lifestyle?,” “Do you feel you have the
tools/resources to make change?,” and “Would you like to find out more about the
tools and resources available to you?,” we are able to getting a better sense of how the
focus groups went and if they were effective or not.

 Research
 Applies research-based knowledge from nursing as the basis for culturally sensitive
practice
 In this paper, we discuss the barrier of health-literacy in this population. Using
nursing research, it was determined that it can affect the participant’s response to
questions due to a lack of understanding. For example, if the participants are asked,
“How often do you see a PCP” (see Appendix B), some may not answer or answer
incorrectly because they do not know what a PCP is. To combat this issue, the goal
was to create all questions at a fifth grade reading level and provide definitions if
needed.
 Shares research findings with colleagues
 For this community health project, we were given the task of researching the data and
narrowing it down to certain populations in the community of Portsmouth. Sharing
this data with our partners at the health department, we were better able to serve the
populations who were most at risk for strokes and stroke deaths. Afterward, we all
split up into three groups to canvas these areas and perform a windshield survey to
better communicate our findings with the rest of the group. At the end of our project,
we then shared our findings and our project with ODUs School of Nursing.

 Leadership
 Assumes a leadership role within one’s scope of practice as a designer, manager, and
coordinator of health care to meet the special needs of populations
 As a group, we each took a leadership role in order to a design and coordinate our
own focus group to meet the healthcare needs of the city of Portsmouth. Each of us
had a different role where we gathered data, picked an aggregate and 3 different
locations, researched the barriers and limitations, came up with focus group
questions, studied and practice these questions, and then coordinated focus groups in
order to meet these needs of the population.
 Initiates community partnerships to establish health promotion goals and implements
strategies to meet those goals
 In this paper, we discussed how our major partner for this community health
project/paper was the Portsmouth Health Department. They provided the data,
reached out to the community, provided a meeting place, helped us make our
questions, helped us set up our focus groups, and provided a means to implement our
hard work. Other partners were some recreations centers, churches, and schools,
which we reached out too to hopefully gather some information and to help set up our
focus groups.
 Organizes, manages, and evaluates the development of strategies to promote health
communities
 During these practice focus groups, I assumed the leadership role of the Facilitator. I
was in charge of managing the group, reading the questions, redirecting the topics,
keeping the group organized, and evaluating how each question was working amongst
the group. By doing this, I was better able to assess the focus groups in order to
promote the health in the community.

 Professionalism
 Advocates for professional standards of practice using organizational and political
processes
 As a student representing ODU, I carried myself as a professional to advocate for the
professional standards of nursing when using any organizational and political
processes. In this paper, we described how we used professional standards of practice
by caring for the safety of not only us as students, but also for our partners and the
participants. In regards to safety, we were not allowed to video or record the
participants to prevent any ethical issues, we were not allowed to gather any personal
information to protect the PHD legal standards, and we were not allowed to hand out
any personal information to protect PHD, as well as ODU.
 Culture
 Considers the impact of research outcomes, and the effects of health and social policies,
on persons from diverse backgrounds
 In this paper, we discussed our major finding in nursing research on focus groups was
the limitation of health literacy when working with diverse backgrounds. We found
one research article that discussed how health literacy can affect the responses of your
participants and how the outcomes would be affected. If the participant is unable to
understand the question, they could answer wrong to where it causes the
implementation to be skewed, which could ultimately affect the health and well-being
of the patient. Utilizing this, we had to find ways around this by breaking down the
vocabulary into simpler terms in order to prevent any negative effects on the health or
social policies of the participants.
 Maintains an awareness of global environment factors that may influence the delivery of
health care services
 When writing this paper, we discussed certain influences, in and out of Portsmouth,
that could affect any interventions that we may perform. This included things like low
socioeconomic status, poor health-literacy, dangerous surroundings, different racial
backgrounds, etc. All of these could affect the way care is delivered, so it was
important for us to be aware of all of these effects and find a way to prevent them in
order to help this community in the best way possible.

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