2023 The role of the community health nurse is to increase public awareness and compliance in health

The role of the community health nurse is to increase public awareness and compliance in health promotion within the community (Green, 2018). The role of the community health nurse not only includes taking care of the sick within the community, but also being politically involved in healthcare reform policies that may affect the community and being an advocate for the members of the community that the nurse serves (Kulbok, Thatcher, Park, & Meszaros, 2012). Furthermore, the role of the community health nurse can be specialized for certain stakeholders. For example, the school nurse is a specialized type of community health nurse in which the community stakeholders are the school, parents, and students. The school nurse’s role would be to work with the school and the parents to promote a healthy environment both at the school and at home. The broad scope of the role of the community health nurse involved not only promoting individual and family health needs, but community health needs (Green, 2018). The community health nurse works with the community stakeholders to promote overall community wellness throughout the neighborhood and surrounding areas (Green, 2018). It is important to appraise community resources as part of a community assessment in order to execute a fully-developed plan of care when community health issues arise. Resources such as nonprofits and spiritual organizations be valuable assets and partners with the community health nurse (Green, 2018). Partnerships such as these serve not only for platforms of reform and support in the community (Green, 2018). For example, nonprofit resources such as a soup kitchen, can help to level the health disparities that are often present in diverse communities or communities with a lower socio-economic population (Green, 2018).

Resource:

Green, S. (2018). Populations as clients. In Grand Canyon University (Eds.). Community and Public Health: The Future of Healthcare. Retrieved from https://lc.gcumedia.com/nrs427vn/community-and-public-health-the-future-of-health-care/v1.1/#/chapter/1

Kulbok, P.A., Thatcher, E., Park, E., Meszaros, P.S. (2012). Evolving public health nursing roles: Focus on community participatory health promotion and prevention. The Online Journal of Issues in Nursing 17(2). Doi:10.3912/OJIN.Vol17No02Man01

A healthy community can be described as one in which local groups from all parts of the community work together to prevent disease and make healthy living options accessible. It also helps to reduce health gaps caused by differences in income, education, race and ethnicity, location and other factors can affect health (CDC, 2015). The community nurse plays a significant part in promoting, preventing, and maintaining the health of the community by using her skills, knowledge and expertise, and experience in the delivery of care in public settings. Care within the community is focused on disease prevention and health promotion through education, screenings and vaccinations to prevent communicable diseases.

The stakeholders play an integral part in promoting the health of a community through the implementation of policies and availability of necessary resources. Stakeholders assist in community health promotion by reducing health gaps caused by differences in income, education and race, and encourages equality. They often make contributions in the form of cash, providing goods and services, events, spiritual and psychological support. The development and success of any community is determined/measured by the health of its members; hence it is important for all stakeholders to play their part (GCU, 2018) in making the dream a reality.

Appraising the community resources during the community assessment is very important as these meet the needs of the people. If there is a lack of resources in the community, then there will be a problem because the needs of the people won’t be met effectively. For example, a church in a community helps in meeting the spiritual needs of the members by providing counselling and emotional support, prayer and worship service.

References

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2015). A healthy community is a prepared community. Retrieved from https://blogs.cdc.gov/publichealthmatters/2015/09/a-healthy-community-is-a-prepared-community/

Grand Canyon University (Ed). (2018). Community & public health: The future of health care. Retrieved from https://lc.gcumedia.com/nrs427vn/community-and-public-health-the-future-of-health-care/v1.1/