The Affordable Care Act was signed into law by President Barack Obama in March 2010. Many of the provisions of the law directly affect health care providers. Review the following topic materials:

1. “About the Affordable Care Act”
2. “Health Care Transformation: The Affordable Care Act and More”

What are the most important elements of the Affordable Care Act in relation to community and public health? What is the role of the nurse in implementing this law?

Develop a 10-slide INTERESTING PowerPoint presentation that addresses the following:Describe your selected disorder,  EITHER ASTHMA IN CHILDREN OR ALZHEIMER’S DISEASE as well as associated alterations. 

Explain the pathophysiology of the alterations, including changes that occur in at least two body systems.

Explain how genetics, gender, ethnicity, age, and behavior might impact the pathophysiology of the alterations you identified, as well as diagnosis and treatment of your selected disorder.

Construct a MIND MAP for the disorder you selected. Include the epidemiology, pathophysiology of alterations, risk factors, and clinical presentation, as well as the diagnosis and treatment of the disorder.

MUST USE AT LEAST 4 REFERENCES APA FORMAT AND INCLUDE MIND MAP

Go to https://www.healthypeople.gov/ and describe, for example: Evidence Based Initiatives for Tobacco and Second Hand Smoke Exposure: Reducing Out of Pocket Costs for Evidence based Cessation Treatments. Describe the snapshot, what they found, did they implement. There are many Evidence Base Practices on Healthy People 2020. APA paper 2 pages max. Please include reference page from health people. No plagiarism 

1) click on healthy people link

2) hover over leading health indicators

3) click on 2020 LHI topics

4) Scroll to the bottom and click on Tobacco

1 postsRe: Topic 3 DQ 1

Immigrants are one of the largest vulnerable populations in the United States. There are approximately 44.5 million immigrants in the US according to research done in 2017. The US has the largest number of immigrants as compared to other countries, Germany has the second highest number of immigrants calculating only 12 million followed by Russia with 11.6 million. When looking at the US compared to other countries, the US has almost 4 times the number of immigrants as the other leading countries. With this high number of immigrants, they are vulnerable for impaired health and wellbeing for many reasons. “Refugees and immigrants can be defined as vulnerable populations because they are often in an unknown environment with little understanding of the new culture, resources, or language and will likely require a host of support in order to acclimate to their new environments” (Grand Canyon University, 2018).

Public health nurses need to be aware of the people who fall into this category within their community and treat them with the same respect and dignity that they would for people who do not and ensure that they care for their needs. “This includes accounting for language barriers, lack of insurance, and provision of resources such as clothing, food and water, and possibly housing needs” (Grand Canyon University, 2018). To do this we must be knowledgeable of their culture and health beliefs and assist them in finding resources that can improve their health. It can be difficult for this population to advocate for themselves because of the lack of knowledge and understanding of how our health system is constructed and ran. Language can be on of the biggest barriers when assisting immigrants, and we as public health nurses need to be aware of these barriers and try to offer assistance when communicating with them. These can include things such as having an interpreter available to allow for easier communication of their needs. In the hospital we have our interpreter phones that we can use to effectively communicate with our patients, so by having these for the use of public health nurses could better the health of this vulnerable population.

1 postsRe: Topic 3 DQ 1

A group is considered as a “vulnerable population” if it has continuing or more aggravating factors that maintains their poor health status compared to an “at- risk” group. There is a significant disproportionate risk of poor health outcomes for vulnerable populations which would include those living in poverty, homeless, disabled, severe cognitive impairment or extremes of age (Maurer & Smith, 2013, p.527). While at risk groups have a chance of being affected, the vulnerable group has many variables that attribute to the susceptibility of poor health. “A vulnerable population is more likely to develop health-related problems, have more difficulty accessing health care” (Maurer & Smith, 2013, p. 528). Vulnerable groups are “more likely to experience a poor outcome or shorter life span because of those health conditions” (Maurer & Smith, 2013, p. 528).

For example, a person is considered vulnerable if he/she suffers from a disease, but also has an income below the poverty level, no health insurance, and stressors related to their living conditions, such as homeless people (Maurer and Smith, 2013).

One example of vulnerable population group in The United States is the children who lives in poverty or parent has very low income to satisfy their necessities. It is estimated that about 387 million children worldwide live in extreme poverty wherein the household income is estimated to be around less than 2 dollars per day. Worldwide, about 19.5% of children compared to only 9.2% of adults are in extreme poverty (UNICEF, 2013). In the United States, poverty is an increasing problem such as from 2009 to 2010, there is almost a 1 million increase of children living in poverty. Child poverty has many effects on the child such as inadequate nutrition, poor academic performance, lack of health care insurance behavioral, social and emotional problems which also makes them further at risk for abuse and/or neglect (American Psychological Association, 2018).

Nurses may need to help advocate for these very young children who live in poverty by helping provide them knowledge and access to appropriate health care and nutritional services. This entails being familiar with existing laws that helps protect their rights and knowledge of existing services that they are eligible to receive (Maurer & Smith, 2013, p.151). Aside from providing health promotion and education, nurses help further by educating vulnerable families on how to access available resources and referral to social services. According to United States Department of Agriculture Food and Nutrition Service (2018), there are several federal programs which help provide nutrition assistance such as Women, Infants, and Children (WIC).

Children from low-income families are most vulnerable of suffering from consuming empty calories. One ethical issue is the involvement of the government in improving school lunches being provided in schools which is being aimed at combating obesity and malnutrition. In 2010, the Hunger-Free Kids Act mandates improving school lunches to provide nutritious foods as recommended by the federal dietary guidelines. This involves increasing fruits, vegetables, non-fat milk and whole grains while decreasing high fat, salt and sugary foods. This bring about the ethical issue of not allowing children to choose the foods they prefer to consume (Crawford, Gosliner & Kayman, 2011). This appears to be a good initiative from the government to implement healthy school meals to ensure that children, especially those from low-income families, are able to meet the recommended nutritional requirement to prevent malnutrition and the possible long-term health problems associated with it. It may be important that nurses also help educate families on the importance of having a nutritious diet and avoid consuming empty calories which may lead to obesity and health problems.nurses also help to educate families on the importance of having a nutritious diet and avoid consuming empty calories which may lead to obesity and health problems.

“Community health nurses can advocate on the behalf of vulnerable groups by writing and calling government representatives and speaking to professional and community organizations about the problems and needs of high-risk groups” (Maurer and Smith, 2013).