Posted: March 16th, 2015

Healthy People Initiative

Healthy People Initiative

Healthy People Initiative
Maria is a 40-year-old Hispanic woman who is in her second year of nursing school. She complains of a 14-pound weight gain since starting school and is afraid of what this will do to both her appearance and health if the trend continues. After doing her history, you learn that she is an excellent cook and she and her family love to eat foods that reflect their Hispanic heritage. She is married with two school-age children. She is in class a total of 15 hours per week, plus 12 hours of labs and clinical. She maintains the household essentially by herself and does all the shopping, cooking, cleaning, and chauffeuring of the children. She states that she is lucky to get 6 hours of sleep per night, but that is okay with her. She lives 1hour from campus and commutes each day.
Additional information to gather from Maria
The primary reason for her seeking medical help, her birth weight, school weight and height, timing of weight gain and body shape change. Furthermore, her maximum as well as minimum adult weights, the weight at one of her major events for instance wedding or pregnancies (before and after). The Identification of the pattern, as well as timing of weight gain, remains crucial in the identification of the accompanied state. For instance, weight gain often follows a retirement or an injury from professional or regular sports activity. In addition, the weight gain timing and pattern may assist in the identification of associated medical conditions, for instance, hypothyroidism. Also, I will inquire on familial tendency of overweight or obesity. This may give evidences to inherited influences, or an opportunity to perk up the health of the rest of the family (National Center for Health Statistics (U.S.), 2012).
Real and Potential Health Risks for Maria
Maria stands at a high risk of many health problems; this incorporates the diabetes, heart disease, as well as certain cancers.  Furthermore, she is at risk of stroke, sleep apneas, osteoarthritis, fatty liver disease, kidney disease, and pregnancy problems (National Center for Health Statistics (U.S.), 2012).
Reasonable Short Term Goals for Diabetes
According to Healthy people 2020, diabetes takes place when the body fails to react or produce aptly to insulin. However, without an appropriate insulin functioning. The blood levels turnout to be raised as well as other metabolic abnormalities. With this regard, the HP 2020 main goal for DM is reduction of the disease and economic burden as well as improvement of the life quality for the entire people at risk of DM, like in the case of Maria (National Center for Health Statistics (U.S.), 2012)

Reference
National Center for Health Statistics (U.S.). (2012). Healthy People 2010: Final review. Hyattsville, MD: U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics.

Healthy People 2020 Objective:
Improve Pregnancy Planning and Spacing, and Prevent Unintended Pregnancy
Family planning is an important area of public health, aimed at helping couples get the number of children that they can comfortably bring up in a healthy way (Healthy People 2020, 2015). Effective policies in this area will lead to a healthy population.
Expanding access to family planning (FP) and reproductive health will be one of my best services for my community as a community health nurse. I would do this to reduce maternal and child deaths and improve the health of the mothers and children in my community, which has a high maternal death rates. The policies include strengthening the leadership and commitment on FP issues by working with the local community to enable the success of family planning policies as in Healthy People 2020 (2015). To achieve this, we will dialogue with the policy makers to make them understand the costs and benefits of the programs. The other policy is to increase financial support for FP programs and services through dialogue with the government and the other health funders, such as the USAID (Healthy People 2020, 2015).
Another important policy for my community will be building the local capacity to identify and address the policy and the program barriers to ensure that the community receives uninterrupted services throughout the year. Aditionally, we will arrange to facilitate the adoption of policies that address the FP needs of vulnerable groups, such as the youths, low-income earners, street families, and refugees. Promoting accountability by strengthening skills for monitoring and evaluating FP programs and formulating supportive policies to scale up interventions by the local and the national authorities will be another important initiative.
In essence, family planning is an important area of public health aimed at helping families get the number that they can bring up in a healthy manner. As a community nurse, there are a number of policies to implement to enhance the quality of FP services as discussed.

References
Healthy People 2020. (2015). Topics and objectives: Family planning. Retrieved from http://www.healthypeople.gov/2020/topics-objectives/topic/family-planning

Fall Creek Community Windshield Survey
Name:     Date:
Instructor’s Name:
Criteria    Your response
1. Community Introduction:
Identify the community you will be using for this assignment. It should be the area where you live or the area surrounding your work setting.    The Fall Creek community is the one I chose for the Community Windshield Survey in which I have lived for the past six years. It is a US community that is master-planned in the unincorporated Harris County of Texas. Ralph (2004) reported that the 1300 acre community is about 3 miles from the George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston and is in the north of Downtown Indianapolis, Indiana.

2. Windshield survey
a. Vitality    This community is a transitional state in that it has beautiful, newly built homes with an architectural style similar to that of the 1930s. The houses are same to some of the historic ones within the community. Definite delineation is evident between the sections that aren’t updated and the restored section. The evidence of this comes from the condition of the residences as well as the maintenance of infrastructures like street lighting, sidewalks, and environmental sanitation.
b. Indicators of social and economic conditions    There are many small restaurants and shops in the community’s residential areas. On the main thoroughfare bordering the community’s western edge, there are three fast-food chain restaurants. The city bus stops, which are marked well. The developed area has Pilates studio, yoga, high-end salon and butcher among many others. The three public designated parks have an open green space with limited playground equipment. Fall Creek appears to be dominated by the blacks in the older sections while the whites dominate the redeveloped ones. At any given time, the police appeared equal in all places. The community’s resource centers are many, same to the youth and senior centers.
c. Health Resources    There is proximal to a large hospital with outpatient, inpatient, and emergency departments. The hospital campus is about one mile from the community’s age, and it doesn’t have a community clinic. There are two national chain drugstores proximal to the hospital with a staff nurse practitioner at daytime.
d. Environmental conditions related to health    The community has a clean environment with fresh air in most places. However, the black dominated areas are somehow dirty with conspicuous dumping sites. Some sewerage systems are ineffective in that there are some places with leakages.
e. Social functioning    The community has two high schools as well as two great schools with both lying opposite the community edges. Churches are many taking up business spaces or the long abandoned buildings. Only the community churches have community gatherings. Most students walk to and from school, and before and after classes, the streets are full of them.
f. Attitude toward health care    The attitude towards health care varies between the white and black dominated areas. Most of the whites dominate the hospital while trying to receive care while the blacks are few.
3. Conclusion:
Provide a summary of your findings and your conclusion. What problems did you identify?    The community has new buildings in most places with architectural designs similar to those of the 1930s. Black dominated areas are less developed than the white dominated ones. There are several social, health and economic facilities. However, the health and recreational facilities and schools are inadequate for the community since there is no community clinic in addition to a few schools.  It’s hard to pass health information to the community at a faster rate because of this in addition to the findings that only churches are responsible for social gatherings. Waste disposal and the sewerage system pose a great danger to the health of the people in the community. Furthermore, most blacks don’t seek health care services compared to their white colleagues, which is a challenge in ensuring a healthy community.  Therefore, the community has a lot to do so as to upgrade the living standards and health of its people.
4. References:
OPTIONAL: List any references that you cited.    Ralph, B.(2004). Fall Creek is ripe territory for Fein apartment project. Texas: Houston Chronicle.

Guidelines for Caring for Populations
Milestone 2: Assessment and Diagnosis
PURPOSE
The purpose of this paper is to provide an opportunity to utilize community assessment strategies, uncover a community health problem, and identify the components of the problem related to the community dynamics.
COURSE OUTCOMES
This assignment enables the student to meet the following Course Outcomes.
CO 1. Evaluate the planning of delivery of care to individuals, families, aggregates, and communities in a variety of healthcare settings based on theories and principles of nursing and related disciplines. (PO 1)
CO 2. Integrate clinical judgment in professional decision-making and implementation of the nursing process through analysis of community health nursing practice. (PO 4)
CO 7. Accept accountability for personal and professional development as part of the life-long learning process. (PO 5)
DIRECTIONS
This paper is expected to be no more than four pages in length (not including the title page and reference list). Typical papers are usually three pages. Below are the requirements for successful completion of this paper.
•    Introduction: This should catch the reader’s attention with interesting facts and supporting sources and include the purpose statement of the paper. This should be no more than one or two paragraphs.
•    Community: Identify the community by name (Las Vegas,,Nevada)   that you will be using for this paper and provide a brief, general description of the community. Your community (Las Vegas, Nevada)  should be the area where you live or work. This should be one or two paragraphs.
•    Demographic and epidemiological data: Compile a range of demographic (population description) and epidemiological (causes of health problems and death) data for your community by examining census reports, vital statistic reports, city records, morbidity and mortality reports, and other agency sources. Using these data, describe the community and the problem. Compare your community data to state or national data. This comparison will help to identify a community health problem specific to your community. A summary of these data should be no more than one page.
•    Windshield survey: Provide a brief summary of the findings from your first assignment. Make sure to discuss elements that link your observations to your identified problem. This should be no more than one or two paragraphs.
•    Problem: Using the assessment data, identify the problem that you consider to be a priority concern. Provide a rationale for your choice and relate your choice to one of the Healthy People 2020 specific numbered objectives. Healthy People objectives are located within a topic area under the Objectives page. Your rationale should also include why this is specifically a problem in your community. This should be no more than three paragraphs. Include support of your rationale with at least two scholarly sources such as professional journal articles related to your problem.
•    Summary: The summary paragraph of your paper should include a statement about the problem, the population at risk for this problem, and the major direct or indirect factors that contribute to this problem. This information should be no more than one or two paragraphs.
•    Reference page: All references cited within the paper should be included on a separate References page.
GUIDELINES
•    Application: Use Microsoft Word 2010™ to create this assignment.
•    Use the categories above as APA headings for the sections of your paper.
•    Length: This paper is expected to be no more than four pages in length (not including the title page and reference list.
•    Technical writing: APA format is required. Review APA tutorials in Doc Sharing and use the resources of Smarthinking for writing tutors.
•    Do not use first person (I, me, my, our) in this paper. Make the community the subject even in your windshield survey summary.
BEST PRACTICES IN PREPARING THE PAPER
The following are best practices in preparing this project.
•    Complete the demographic, epidemiologic, and windshield survey prior to choosing a problem to focus on.
•    Choose a nursing problem specific to your community.
•    Make sure all elements of the paper are addressed and headings for each category are included.
•    Review directions thoroughly.
•    Cite all sources within the paper as well as on the References page.
•    Proofread prior to final submission.
•    Check for spelling and grammar errors prior to final submission.
•    Use the A column of the rubric below to ensure that you have included all the needed elements.
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