FNP Week 5 Discussion 1: Systems of Health: Community Nursing for the Nurse Practitioner
FNP Week 5 Discussion 1: Systems of Health: Community Nursing for the Nurse Practitioner
Define community nursing as it relates to nurse practitioner practice. Describe the nurse practioner’s role in screening and promoting health for people in the community. Support your answer with evidence-based research.
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Systems of Health: Community Nursing for the Nurse Practitioner
Community nursing is nursing practice that is anchored on improving the health of communities through principally preventive health education. It focuses on identifying the health problems that the community has and provides solutions before the problem takes root within the community (Nies & McEwen, 2019). One of the most important functions that the nurse undertakes within community nursing is screening for conditions such as cancer and diabetes and this helps in identifying those at risk and giving them the necessary education to avoid those conditions (Briant et al., 2018; Hammer & McPhee, 2018). The purpose of this paper is to look at the role of the nurse practitioner in community nursing.
Nurse Practitioner Practice in Community Nursing
The nurse practitioner (NP) is an advanced practice nurse who is trained and educated to be a clinician that treats patients just like a physician would do. But the NP is more tailored to work at the grassroots or rural level but providing the much needed primary health care services (Topp & Abimbola, 2018). It is a known fact that many physicians are not willing to work in rural communities and prefer large metropolitan areas. It is therefore the gap of clinicians to provide primary health care services among rural marginalized communities that NPs are trained to fill. Performing this function requires that the NP adopts a community health nursing approach of engaging with the community to find out what their main health problems and concerns are.
In treating these communities, the NP has a role of determining the prevailing social determinants of health that are responsible for the ill health of the community. After finding these out, she should then draw up a strategy of prevention that involves both primary and secondary preventive measures. This means health promotion and health education as well as screening to identify those at risk of various health problems. Some of the social determinants of health that the NP would be looking out for are the levels of education or educational achievement of the communities, their socioeconomic status in terms of family incomes, their living conditions in terms of housing and sanitation, and their access to quality healthcare services amongst others (Powell, 2016). All these are very significant in determining how to prevent the ill health of the community; and the NP must assess their impact for the best community nursing practice.
Role in Screening and Promoting Health
The NP’s role in screening and promoting health is immense. This is because it is them who lead the healthcare teams within the community health centers and healthcare clinics. This means that they are the ones responsible for coming up with a strategy for health promotion, health education, and screening for the community they serve. They have the role of collaborating with community opinion leaders as well as faith-based organizations in reaching communities and planning for outreach services for health education. They can also seek out partners and sponsors to facilitate free screening for conditions such as colorectal cancer, cancer of the cervix, and diabetes amongst other conditions.
Conclusion
The NP is a very crucial healthcare worker in terms of delivering primary healthcare within the context of community nursing. This is because their training and education is geared towards working within rural communities that have diverse healthcare issues. They are equipped with the knowledge and skills to educate, treat, and screen communities within which they practice.
References
Briant, K.J., Sanchez, J.I., Ibarra, G., Escareño, M., Gonzalez, N.E., Gonzalez, V.J., & Thompson, B. (2018). Using a culturally tailored intervention to increase colorectal cancer knowledge and screening among Hispanics in a rural community. Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, 27(11), 1283–1288. https://doi.org/10.1158/1055-9965.EPI-17-1092
Hammer, D.G., & McPhee, S.J. (Eds). (2018). Pathophysiology of disease: An introduction to clinical medicine, 8th ed. McGraw-Hill Education.
Nies, M.A., & McEwen, M. (2019). Community/ public health nursing: Promoting the health of populations, 7th ed. Elsevier.
Powell, D.L. (2016). Social determinants of health: Cultural competence is not enough. Creative Nursing, 24(1), 5-10. http://dx.doi.org/10.1891/1078-4535.22.1.5
Topp, S.M., & Abimbola, S. (2018). Call for papers – the Alma Ata Declaration at 40: reflections on primary healthcare in a new era. BMJ Global Health, 3(2), 1-2. http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjgh-2018-000791