Balancing Individual Rights and Public Health- Navigating Infectious Disease Control

Balancing Individual Rights and Public Health- Navigating Infectious Disease Control

Public health, often known as community health, is a growing field focusing on disease prevention, life extension, and health and efficiency promotion through an organized communal effort (Nies, 2015). The Public Health Foundation (PHF) has worked for over a century to promote public health and population health practices to support healthier communities. To help enhance performance and community health outcomes, the PHF has produced valuable resources, tools, information, and training for health agencies, organizations, and individuals (Public Health Foundation, 2019).

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What exactly is Public Health Nursing?

Public health nursing is a hybrid of public health and nursing practice. It is described as improving and protecting population health via information from the nursing, social, and public health sciences (APHN, 2019). Public health nurses are primarily concerned with the health promotion and maintenance of people, families, and communities. Since the advancement of public health, nurses have played an essential role in developing a healthcare delivery system to meet people’s health-related requirements. They can identify at-risk populations by preventing disease progression at the earliest time or phase possible by employing the appropriate level(s) of preventive (Nies, 2015).

Public health promotion and disease prevention initiatives, known as “interventions,” are classified into three categories of prevention: primary, secondary, and tertiary. These degrees of prevention are utilized in nursing practice to reduce health risks and dangers.

Preventive Measures

Level one, primary prevention, tries to prevent disease or harm from occurring in the first place. This level of prevention reduces exposure to dangers that can cause disease or injury by changing unhealthy or dangerous behaviours and developing resistance to disease or injury. Primary prevention includes encouraging healthy eating and exercise, providing shelter, and immunizing against infectious diseases (Institute for Work & Health, 2015).

Secondary prevention, at level two, seeks early diagnosis and prompt intervention to lessen the burden of a disease after it has occurred but before signs and symptoms show. Public health professionals will encourage personal initiatives to prevent reinjury or recurrence, and programs to restore people to their former health and function will be implemented.

Preventative testing (e.g., mammograms, blood pressure screenings, scoliosis screenings, pap smears), daily low-dose aspirins and diet and exercise programs to prevent further heart attacks or strokes, and modified work plans to allow injured or ill workers to return to work safely are examples of secondary prevention (Institute for Work & Health, 2015).

In the third level, tertiary prevention focuses on groups that have previously experienced sickness or harm. Interventions seek to lessen the effect of disease by assisting people in managing long-term, complex health problems and preventing them from worsening. The purpose of tertiary prevention is to restore individuals to their optimal functioning level to increase their quality of life and life expectancy.

Referrals to rehabilitation programs (e.g., cardiac, stroke, physical/occupational therapy), chronic disease management programs, and support groups are examples of tertiary prevention. Examples include educating patients on how to use their drugs and medical equipment at home (Nies, 2015).

Nursing Functions and Responsibilities

The community determines the functions and responsibilities of public health nurses. Nurses in this sector may work in various locations, such as homes, clinics, workplaces, and schools. Public health nurses must analyze the needs of their population and provide resources and solutions based on their knowledge and skills. Analytic assessment skills, policy development/program planning skills, communication skills, cultural competency skills, community dimensions of practice skills, public health sciences skills, financial planning and management skills, and leadership and systems thinking skills are examples of community and public health competencies (Nies, 2015).

Community and public health nurses must also collaborate with the community to create and execute programs that address health needs and evaluate program effectiveness after implementation. Nurses may conduct health screenings and immunization clinics, organize support groups, and monitor the health of individuals in a population. They may also collaborate with multidisciplinary professional groups, serve on the boards of health associations, and be members of health planning agencies and councils (Nies, 2015).

Public Health Nursing Issues

Public health nursing is the most numerous profession within the workforce, with a long and successful history of promoting and safeguarding public health. Public health nurses face unique challenges, such as rising healthcare expenses, restricted resources, and a shrinking public health workforce. “Over the last decade, the public health infrastructure has been destroyed by budget cuts and dwindling resources, undermining the capacity of PHN to effectively impact population health outcomes,” writes Kub (2017). As a result of budget cuts, the National Advisory Council on Nurse Education and Practice (NACNEP) requested assistance for PHN education and practice in a letter to Congress and the Secretary of the United States Department of Health and Human Services (USDHHS) in 2014. In their annual report to Congress in 2016, the NACNEP reiterated this position, requesting “more investment in population health science and training, as well as greater support for research on population health management, measurements, and metrics” (Kub, 2017).

Budget cuts linked with health care reform have resulted in a sustained reduction in public health nurses. Furthermore, less expensive providers are being hired for services, and the duties of PHNs are evolving, with less emphasis on the nurse’s involvement in the community. To strengthen the public health workforce, new efforts must be made to enhance financing for public health nurses, education, and resources.

Conclusion

Individuals in the community can be cared for by public health nurses. With more financing, they can address individual care management needs and population and system-level factors such as social determinants and health inequities through PHN practice and research (Kub, 2017).

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References

“APHN. (2019, March). What is a PHN? Retrieved from http://www.phnurse.org/What-is-Public- Health

Goodman, R. A., Bunnell, R., & Posner, S. F. (2014). What is “community health”? Examining the meaning of an evolving field in public health. Preventive medicine, p. 67 Suppl 1(Suppl 1), S58–S61. doi:10.1016/j.ypmed.2014.07.028

Institute for Work & Health. (2015, April). Primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention. Retrieved from https://www.iwh.on.ca/what-researchers-mean-by/primary-secondary-and- tertiary-prevention

Kub, J., Kulbok, P., Miner, S., & Merrill, J. (2017). Increasing the capacity of public health nursing to strengthen the public health infrastructure and to promote and protect the health of communities and populations. American Academy of Nursing on Policy, 65(5), 661–664. Retrieved from https://www.nursingoutlook.org/article/S0029-6554(17)30408-6/pdf

Nies, M., & McEwen, M. (2015). Community/Public Health Nursing: Promoting the Health of Population (6th ed.). Retrieved from https://phoenix.vitalsource.com/#/books/9780323188197 Public Health Foundation. (2019). About PHF. Retrieved from http://www.phf.org/AboutUs/Pages/default.aspx”

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Develop your position about individual rights to control the spread of infectious diseases for the good of society.

· Survey the role of boards of health in your community and state to determine how infectious diseases are prevented and controlled.

Community and Public Health

·150-word minimum/250-word maximum without the reference(s).

Must be written in APA format

·  Minimum of one reference, APA format.