Public Health Nursing

Public Health Nursing

Question 1:

Public health nursing focuses on meeting community needs by identifying community problems and managing interactions within the community. Public health nurses can utilize nursing conceptual frameworks to guide their daily community practice. Two conceptual frameworks applicable are Florence Nightingale’s environmental theory and the health belief model. The environmental theory focuses on preventive healthcare for communities. This theory opines that disease is more common in poor environments, and health can be promoted by providing adequate ventilation, cleanliness, and light, warm and pure water (Gilbert, 2020). According to this theory, poor environmental conditions are not good for health, while good environmental conditions can help in disease reduction. This model views health as a fluid state which constantly changes. It shows that health is a dynamic state, and individuals adapt to changes in their external and internal environments to maintain a high level of wellness. The extreme ends of this model are high-level wellness and death.

The Health Belief Model (HBM) helps public health nurses comprehend the failure of persons to implement disease prevention strategies for early detection of diseases. This model opines that an individual’s belief in a personal threat of a disease coupled with the individual’s belief in the effectiveness of recommended action or health behavior can help predict whether the individual is likely to adopt the health behavior (Sesagiri Raamkumar et al., 2020). The two major foundations of this theory are the desire to avoid illness or get well and the belief that a specific healthcare behavior will prevent or cure illness. A person’s action depends on perceptions of benefits and risks linked to health behavior. The combination of “perceived susceptibility, perceived severity, perceived benefits, perceived barriers, cues to action, and self-efficacy” influences health behavior (Sesagiri Raamkumar et al., 2020).

The HBM has been selected to be applied to the public perception of prevention strategies for Covid-19. This model can be used to understand health behaviors. This policy can determine how the public perceives government policies on social distancing, hand washing, and wearing masks. Primary prevention is essential in controlling the spread of Covid-19 (Kalikotay, 2020). The messages from the government can influence individual health behavior if they focus on perceived threats, perceived barriers, perceived benefits, and self-efficacy. One way of preventing Covid-19 is physical distancing (Kalikotay, 2020). Public health nurses can use the HBM to inquire from the general public about their perceived benefits and risks of physical distancing. This can help public health nurses tailor educational interventions at the micro, meso, and macro levels. This will help the community understand the importance of social distancing in Covid-19. This will help in the prevention of the spread of Covid-19.

Questions 2:

According to systems theory, healthcare quality and patient safety should concern the healthcare delivery industry. Improvement of healthcare outcomes should systematically appreciate the whole system that contributes to these outcomes (Anderson, 2016). The article selected is titled “Improving healthcare by embracing systems theory” by Anderson (2016). Systems theory is an interdisciplinary approach concerned with the complex systems in society and nature. A public health nurse can use this framework to investigate how different community and individual factors influence public healthcare outcomes. The main idea behind the systems theory is the whole society and community is more significant than the individual component and factors. An excellent example that can be utilized is when preparing pork ribs. The outcome will be favorable when all the ingredients are present, and a good pork rib will be achieved.

The nursing process guides nursing care. A nursing process approach to health care utilizes basic client-centered care principles, critical thinking, goal-oriented projects, nursing intuitions, and recommendations (Toney-Butler & Thayer, 2020). It involves integrating scientific and holistic approaches to provide quality and compassionate care. This process functions to guide patient-centered care. It has five essential steps: “assessment, diagnosis, planning, implementation, and evaluation “(Toney-Butler & Thayer, 2020).  Using a nursing process to guide care is important in the dynamic and complex healthcare delivery industry. The healthcare population is aging with complex healthcare needs and combined conditions.

The nursing process focuses on individuals, while the system theory focuses on factors contributing to healthcare outcomes and the final product. The system theory opines that systems cannot be viewed as different parts that function in isolation. This is in contrast with the nursing process, which has differential sequential steps done in isolation to develop a diagnosis and treatment plan. Systems theory can be applied to different health issues. One such issue is preventing COVID-19 infections among healthcare professionals working in isolation centers.   Covid-19 has led to restrictive infection control measures (Bradley et al., 2020). The systems theory can help hospital policymakers look at the implications of actions and decisions in this complex situation with multiple factors.

In conclusion, there are many nursing conceptual frameworks that public health nurses can utilize to promote community health. They must analyze nursing and borrowed theories to help them meet complex healthcare needs.

References

Anderson, B. R. (2016). Improving health care by embracing systems theory. The Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery, 152(2), 593-594. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jtcvs.2016.03.029

Bradley, D. T., Mansouri, M. A., Kee, F., & Garcia, L. M. (2020). A systems approach to preventing and responding to COVID-19. EClinicalMedicine, 21, 100325. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eclinm.2020.100325

Gilbert, H. A. (2020). Florence Nightingale’s environmental theory and its influence on contemporary infection control. Collegian, 27(6), 626-633. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.colegn.2020.09.006

Kalikotay, B. (2020). Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) prevention and control measures in the community: A literature review. Rupantaran: A Multidisciplinary Journal, 4(1), 44-51. https://doi.org/10.3126/rupantaran.v4i1.34016

Sesagiri Raamkumar, A., Tan, S. G., & Wee, H. L. (2020). Use of health belief model–based deep learning classifiers for COVID-19 social media content to examine public perceptions of physical distancing: Model development and case study. JMIR Public Health and Surveillance, 6(3), e20493. https://doi.org/10.2196/20493

Toney-Butler, T. J., & Thayer, J. M. (2020, July 10). Nursing process – StatPearls – NCBI bookshelf. National Center for Biotechnology Information. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK499937/

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This is two-question coursework. Each with 2-3 references.

Question 1: Compare two conceptual frameworks that can be used in public health nursing. Select a conceptual framework and apply it to public health nursing issues. Apply the nursing process at the micro-level, meso-level, and macro-level for the public health issue you selected.

Question 2: Select and cite an article demonstrating how systems theory applies to public health nursing. Compare systems theory and nursing process. Explain how systems theory applies to a public health issue in an infectious disease clinic setting.