NURS 4210 Week 1 Discussion – Community Health Issues
I currently live and practice nursing in Marietta, Ohio. It is a small, rural town with a population of 13,673 people as of July 2017 (United States Census Bureau, 2018). A significant issue that plagues our area is underage smoking. Cigarette smoking and now e-cigarettes have taken over. The role of the public health office is to educate, promote and provide health care for those who would not typically receive any (Stanhope & Lancaster, 2016). Marietta, Ohio, has a high rate of unemployment and uninsured, so the role of a public health nurse is vital.
Smoking is one of the largest preventable causes of death in the United States (CDC, 2018). Cigarette smoking kills over 480,000 people every year, and smoking-related illnesses cost more than $300 billion (CDC, 2018). The rate of underage smoking continues to rise in Ohio. The percentage of Ohio high school students smoking is 15.1, and the national average of high schoolers smoking is 15.7 (Truth Initiative, 2018). It has become a major epidemic in my area that the health department is trying desperately to decrease by educating the population. My local health department is currently campaigning to change the age of legal cigarette purchasing to 21. 90% of cigarettes bought for underage people were purchased by someone between the ages of 18-20 (Washington Gov, 2018). The use of e-cigarettes among high school students increased by 900% between 2011-2015 (Surgeon General, 2016).
The two Registered Nurses at my local health department are regularly campaigning with young people about the effects of smoking. Teenagers tend to have the belief that bad things will not happen to them. Therefore, educating the youth is even more important. Education needs to begin when the kids are young. When education on nonsmoking starts in high school, many teenagers have already begun smoking or have tried it, and they are not going to be receptive to the education. It is best to start the education in middle school when the children would still be open to learning and understanding the effects of smoking.
NURS 4210 Week 1 Discussion – Community Health Issues
Some ways I feel that the health department could promote the nonsmoking campaign would be to offer seminars for teenagers and have prizes and giveaways. Most teenagers need an incentive to participate in something such as this. Another way to get through to young people is to have a spokesperson. Have someone that is younger and dealing with lung cancer come and speak to them. E-cigarettes are going to become an even larger issue. So many teenagers and young adults think that because it is not an actual cigarette, it is not bad for you, and they couldn’t be more wrong. According to Dr. Jasmine Reese, MD, at John Hopkins All Children’s Hospital (2018) more than 2 million middle school and high schoolers are using e-cigarettes.
Contrary to most beliefs, e-cigarettes are not harmless and contain cancer-causing chemicals and nicotine (Reese, 2018). As nurses, we have an obligation to make sure that teenagers and parents understand the effects of e-cigarettes and that harsher laws are imposed on those that sell underage kids’ cigarettes and e-cigarettes.
References
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2018). The Burden of Tobacco Use in the U.S. Retrieved from https://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/campaign/tips/resources/data/cigarette-smoking-in- united-states.html
Stanhope, M., & Lancaster, j. (2016). Public health nursing: Population-centered health care in the community (9th ed.). St. Louis, MO: Elsevier.
Surgeon General (2016). E-Cigarette Use Among Youth and Young Adults: A Report of the Surgeon General. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Truth Initiative. (2018). Tobacco use in Ohio. Retrieved from https://truthinitiative.org/tobacco- use-ohio
United States Census Bureau. (2018). Quick facts Marietta City, Ohio. Retrieved from https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/mariettacityohio/PST045217
Washington County, Ohio. (2018). Retrieved from www.washingtongov.org/health
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Question 
NURS 4210 Week 1 Discussion – Community Health Issues
Pick a top health issue in your community and describe some ways in which a nurse might improve this issue at the population level.
Are the problems that your colleagues are sharing the same as you are seeing in your communities, or are they different?
Help each other consider different aspects of the intervention(s) at the system and community levels of care to address health problems in their own communities.