A paradigm shift is occurring across the United States from volume-based to value-based care. Reflect upon your organizational culture to address the following:

1. Analyze and assess the culture of your healthcare setting as it relates to patient safety.
2. Examine one opportunity to improve patient safety outcomes. Include in your strategy current technology being used to support safety and explain the importance of interprofessional collaboration to help promote a safer environment.

NR 443 Discussions Week 1 to 7 

NR 443 Discussions Week 1

NR 443 Week 1 DQ 1 :

Healthy People 2020 (Graded)

The federal government developed Healthy People as a set of national health objectives that are periodically evaluated to measure progress in the nation’s health goals and healthcare services. HP 2020 has a renewed focus on identifying, measuring, tracking, and reducing health disparities through a determinants-of-health approach.

This week, please briefly discuss a Healthy People 2020 objective under the topic area of your choice. Go to www.healthypeople.gov and select any one of the objectives under the topic area of your interest. Using the local, national, or international news, describe actions you, as a community health nurse, could take in formulating policy changes to help promote the objective you have selected. Cite references to support your views.

NR 443 Week 1 DQ 2 :

Determinants of Health (Graded)

Healthy People 2020 identified four Foundation Health Measures (FHM) that reflect the major health concerns in the United States. The third FHM isDeterminants of Health. The description of Determinants of Health is:

“A range of personal, social, economic, and environmental factors that influence health status are known as determinants of health. Determinants of health include such things as biology, genetics, individual behavior, access to health services, and the environment in which people are born, live, learn, play, work, and age” (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, n.d., About Determinants of Health section, para. 1).

Go to the “Learn More About Determinants of Health” (http://www.healthypeople.gov/2020/about/DOHAbout.aspx ) and choose one of the five Determinants of Health that you feel is most important for community health. In your posting, share the determinant of health and the rationale for your choice. Remember to cite any references used for developing your rationale.

NR 443 Discussions Week 2

NR 443 Week 2 DQ 1 :

Census Data and Epidemiological Data (Graded)

Go online to the U.S. Census Bureau atwww.census.gov. Obtain information about the demographic characteristics of the population for your county of residence. Once you are on the website, choose the link to “QuickFacts”, and from there you can choose state, county, and city data. You may have to look at county data if your city is not listed. There is also a tab where you can see U.S. comparable data, too.

Include information about age, income, housing, and education. Post a brief summary of the key demographic characteristics of the population in your county (do not copy and paste directly from the website) and apply these data to your community by answering the following questions:

• How do the data from your county compare to the sets of data from the other counties posted by other students in your discussion group?
• Based on the demographic data, what health needs might you anticipate for the population in your county?

NR 443 Week 2 DQ 2 :

Communicable Diseases (Graded)

Review the levels of prevention of communicable diseases discussed in Chapter 25 (Nies& McEwen, 2011). Choose a communicable disease objective listed within theHealthy People 2020 topic area (p. 492). Discuss a role (function) that you, as a CHN, could play in implementing the objective. What community health nursing intervention would you implement? Describe at least two levels of prevention you could address and how you can address them.

NR 443 Discussions Week 3

NR 443 Week 3 DQ 1 :

Collaborating With the Community (Graded)

Identify a community or aggregate you are currently involved with at home (personal life) or at work. Cite some major value, major strengths, and health needs of your community or aggregate. How could a nurse work collaboratively with a community to build on these strengths and facilitate community empowerment? Keep in mind the different methods of community outreach the nurse could utilize.

Please note: According to Nies and McEwan (2011), the definition of an aggregate is a “community composed of people who share common characteristics” (p.92). Remember, aggregates do not necessarily know or interact with one another, but share a common bond such as religious belief, age, life experience, illness, etc.

NR 443 Week 3 DQ 2 :

Resources (Graded)

Assurance is one of the three core functions of public health. Knowing what resources are available is part of this function. Find a resource in your community that could be used as a referral source and share information about the services provided. Who is eligible for the services? What could be done in order to improve the accessibility, acceptability, affordability, or availability of this resource in your community? Make sure to address all four of the A’s in your posting.

NR 443 Discussions Week 4

NR 443 Week 4 DQ 1 :

Concerns for the School Nurse (Graded)

As the school nurse role continues to evolve, there are increasingly more health concerns for the school nurse. Does the locale make a difference in the problems, or are health problems in children and adolescents universal? In some inner-city areas, poor nutrition is a prevalent issue. What do you think are the biggest problems in your areas?

NR 443 Week 4 DQ 2 :

Nurse’s Role in Community Health Settings (Graded)

When caring for populations in community settings, the nurse has many different roles, such as advocate, case manager, educator, researcher, administrator, and so on. Choose one of the community healthcare settings from your textbook or lessons and discuss how one of these roles might be carried out by the community health nurse in the setting you chose.

NR 443 Discussions Week 5

NR 443 Week 5 DQ 1 :

Vulnerable Populations (Graded)

As nurses, we all know what we should do to maintain a healthy lifestyle, but often knowledge does not translate into actual behavior. Vulnerable populations may face additional individual and/or societal barriers to being healthy. What are those barriers? What can nurses do to overcome some of the barriers that you identified?

NR 443 Week 5 DQ 2 :

Priority Setting When Working With Vulnerable Populations (Graded)

This week, we have discussed many different vulnerable populations. Choose a vulnerable population and discuss what you think the top three priorities are for a CHN working with them. Cite at least one scholarly reference that supports your decision.

NR 443 Discussions Week 6

NR 443 Week 6 DQ 1 :

Environmental Pollutants (Graded)

Visit the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Envirofacts website athttp://www.epa.gov/enviro/ . Enter your city, zip code, or location. Explore the site to learn more about your environment and things that might be impacting the health of its citizens. Identify something new you learned about your environment and how it could be affecting health by completing this statement, “I didn’t know ____.” How could you, in the role of a community health nurse, address these concerns?

NR 443 Week 6 DQ 2 :

Disaster Preparedness (Graded)

Visit the websitehttp://www.ready.gov . Review the steps for being prepared for a disaster. As a community health nurse, what elements do you think are important to stress to the community? How is your community preparing for a potential disaster, or how has it prepared?

NR 443 Discussions Week 7

NR 443 Week 7 DQ 1 :

How Do You Define Health? (Graded)

Think about how you define health. Do you think your definition is universal, or is it specific to your culture and/or beliefs? How might another culture’s definition differ?

NR 443 Week 7 DQ 2 :

Affordable Healthcare (Graded)

Please explore the website www.healthcare.gov. Choose the “Get Answers” tab towards the top of the page. Please review several of the topics under this tab and share something that you learned about how the Marketplace works and how this would apply to those in your community.

The Affordable Care Act is a controversial topic and I’m sure there are many different viewpoints represented in our class. For this discussion, let’s focus on understanding the basics of the Marketplace so that we can provide accurate information for our patients and communities.

As highlighted in Chapter 9 of your course text, three research methods are available (descriptive, analytic, and evaluative). Discuss these methods and give one example of how each would be used when conducting research using homeless individuals as subjects. Analyze regulatory, accreditation, ethical, and legal issues and challenges related to each research method.  

Your initial contribution should be 250 to 300 words in length. Your research and claims must be supported by your course text and at least one other scholarly source. Use proper APA formatting for in-text citations and references as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center.

Guided Response: Review several of your classmates’ posts.  Provide a substantive response (minimum of 100 words) to at least two of your peers. Do you agree or disagree with your classmates’ explanation of the appropriateness of the methods used for this group? What other regulatory, ethical, and/or legal issues might be present in your classmates’ examples? 

Case Study 1:

Mrs. Martinez is an 83-year-old Mexican American widow who lives in her own home and is cared for by her adult daughter. Mrs. Martinez owns the home, and her daughter lives with her and provides the care. Her daughter brought her mother to the clinic today to ask to speak to the social worker. She requests that her mother be placed in a nursing home. The daughter states that her mother has nothing to do during the day. The television is on The Weather Channel most of the day because Mrs. Martinez has limited English capability and is unable to read closed-captioning. Mrs. Martinez also has two sons who do not live in the local area, but they do call regularly and check in with their mother and sister. The two sons are opposed to moving their mother to a nursing home because they had promised her that they would “never put her away.”

Post 1-2 page paper of a comparison of the model used for the interdisciplinary geriatric teams at your current practicum site to models used at other sites. Then, explain how the role of the advanced practice nurse differs according to the site of care. Finally, explain how care should be facilitated for the patient in the case you selected based on the model used for the interdisciplinary geriatric teams at your practicum site.