Assignment Task: Develop a hypothetical health promotion plan, 3-4 pages in length, addressing a specific health concern for an individual or a group living in the community.
Introduction:
The first step in any effective project or clinical patient encounter is planning. This assessment provides an opportunity for you to plan a hypothetical clinical learning experience focused on health promotion associated with a specific community health concern or health need. Such a plan defines the critical elements of who, what, when, where, and why that establish the foundation for an effective clinical learning experience for the participants. Completing this assessment will strengthen your understanding of how to plan and negotiate individual or group participation. This assessment is the foundation for the implementation of your health promotion educational plan (Assessment).
Note: Assessment 1 must be completed first before you are able to submit Assessment. Complete the assessments in this course in the order in which they are presented.
Professional Context:
Historically, nurses have made significant contributions to community and public health with regard to health promotion, disease prevention, and environmental and public safety. They have also been instrumental in shaping public health policy. Today, community and public health nurses have a key role in identifying and developing plans of care to address local, national, and international health issues. The goal of community and public health nursing is to optimize the health of individuals and families, taking into consideration cultural, racial, ethnic groups, communities, and populations. Caring for a population involves identifying the factors that place the population's health at risk and developing specific interventions to address those factors. The community/public health nurse uses epidemiology as a tool to customize disease prevention and health promotion strategies disseminated to a specific population. Epidemiology is the branch of medicine that investigates causes of various diseases in a specific population (CDC, 2012; Healthy People 2030, n.d.).
As an advocate and educator, the community/public health nurse is instrumental in providing individuals, groups, and aggregates with the tools that are essential for health promotion and disease prevention. There is a connection between one's quality of life and their health literacy. Health literacy is related to the knowledge, comprehension, and understanding of one's condition along with the ability to find resources that will treat, prevent, maintain, or cure their condition. Health literacy is impacted by the individual's learning style, reading level, and the ability understands and retains the information being provided. The individual's technology aptitude and proficiency in navigating available resources is an essential component to making informed decisions and to the teaching learning process (CDC, 2012; Healthy People 2030, n.d.).
It is essential to develop trust and rapport with community members to accurately identify health needs and help them adopt health promotion, health maintenance, and disease prevention strategies. Cultural, socio-economical, and educational biases need to be taken into consideration when communicating and developing an individualized treatment and educational plan. Social, economic, cultural, and lifestyle behaviors can have an impact on an individual's health and the health of a community. These behaviors may pose health risks, which may be mitigated through lifestyle/behaviorally-based education. The environment, housing conditions, employment factors, diet, cultural beliefs, and family/support system structure play a role in a person's levels of risk and resulting health. Assessment, evaluation, and inclusion of these factors provide a basis for the development of an individualized plan. The health professional may use a genogram or sociogram in this process.
What is a genogram? A genogram, similar to a family tree, is used to gather detailed information about the quality of relationships and interactions between family members over generations as opposed to lineage. Gender, family relationships, emotional relationships, lifespan, and genetic predisposition to certain health conditions are components of a genogram. A genogram, for instance, may identify a pattern of martial issues perhaps rooted in anger or explain why a person has green eyes.
What is a sociogram? A sociogram helps the health professional to develop a greater understanding of these factors by seeing inter-relationships, social links between people or other entities, as well as patterns to identify vulnerable populations and the flow of information within the community.
References
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2012). Lesson 1: Introduction to epidemiology. In Principles of Epidemiology in Public Health Practice (3rd ed.).
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. (n.d.). Healthy People 2030.
Preparation:
For this assessment, you will propose a hypothetical health promotion plan addressing a particular health concern or health need affecting a fictitious individual or group living in the community. The hypothetical individual or group of your choice must be living in the community; not in a hospital, assistant living, nursing home, or other facility.
To prepare for this assessment, first select a health concern or health need from the Assessment 01 Supplement: Health Promotion Plan [PDF] Download Assessment 01 Supplement: Health Promotion Plan [PDF] resource.
- Consider the populations potentially affected by that concern or health need, and hypothetical individuals or groups living in the community.
- Then investigate your chosen concern or need and best practices for health improvement, based on supporting evidence.