Application of Community Health and Population-Focused Nursing
Overview
Access to quality, safe and affordable care has been a major and challenging issue for many Americans. Healthcare sectors at the national, state, county and local levels push for a better health care delivery through the implementation of different programs aimed at improving the health of the population. Community health and population-focused nursing focus on establishing programs used by healthcare providers and stakeholders to ensure the community accesses safe, quality, and affordable care. The program makes health care available by focusing on a specific community and developing initiatives to promote health care in the whole community and not at individual levels. The following paper develops a community health and population-focused nursing in the Albany community in Albany County, New York.
The goal of the Albany County Department of Health is to protect and promote high-quality health among individuals, families, and communities. The department collaborates with the community partners to provide different programs and services. The department achieves the health mission through four major areas:
Prevention of chronic and communicable diseases, disabilities and injuries
Protecting the community against health hazards threatening the health and safety of the population
Promoting health and wellness of the population; and
Preparing for and responding to public health emergencies (Albany County, 2016).
These six tools assist in analyzing health needs and risk assessment of Albany community and developing a health problem prevention topic.
Population economic status assessment
Data collected between 2010 and 2014 revealed that 65 percent of Albany population aged 16 years and above fall under the civilian labor force. In the civilian labor force, 61.7 percent of the population is female. The total cost of health care was approximately U.S. $2.8 billion per year. The median household income in 2014 was U.S. $59, 940 and per capital in the past one year reached U.S. $32,600. The percentage of persons living in poverty was 13.5. Disparities in health occur based on different socioeconomic classes of people in Albany County dictated by the level of household income (United States Census Bureau, 2015). The economic information plays a critical role in establishing the main factors contributing to poor health among communities in Albany County.
Neighborhood/Community Safety Inventory
The physical and psychosocial safety hazards in the Albany’s neighborhood are average because of numerous initiatives adopted by the community in promoting the quality of health care. The 2016-community health needs analysis for the Albany community revealed consistent with the health status of neighboring communities. The indicators for health care access revealed some barriers to access to care in Albany County. The identified problems from the assessment include a high prevalence of communicable diseases, lack of proper emergency response units in health care organizations, and lack of public awareness in the prevention and control of chronic diseases.
Cultural assessment
Cultural competency plays a major role in influencing the health outcome of a population. Cultural competency promotes the mode of health care delivery by influencing the quality of care and the patient’s outcome (Lehman, Fenza, and Hollinger-Smith, n.d). Health organizations in Albany have a defined set of principles and values that recognize cultural differences in the community and provide health services based on individual’s cultural beliefs. However, more needs to be done to promote cultural competence among Albany community to ensure more people access quality and safe care.
Disaster assessment and planning guide
The Department of Health in Albany County is always prepared to respond to public health emergencies. The County puts more efforts towards ensuring the community's total preparedness in case of a disaster through creating awareness and keeping the respond disaster teams on the standby.
Windshield Survey
The survey was conducted to investigate the prevalence of chronic diseases in the community. The chronic disease of importance during the survey was obesity. 21.7 percent of adults and 17 percent of adults and children respectively living in Albany are obese. The condition was highlighted as one of the major concerns for the community health and population-focused nursing. The main factors contributing to the high prevalence of obesity in the community are poor nutrition and lack of physical exercise (Jobin-Davis, Medvesky, Roy, and Baker, 2013).
Population health scavenger survey
The population health scavenger survey was conducted to establish top health priorities in the Albany community, the community’s awareness of current health conditions, and County programs aimed at promoting the quality of life. The indicators of health were analyzed through these four key areas. They are the prevention of chronic diseases; vaccine preventable diseases; promoting mental health and substance use, and promoting a healthy and safe environment. The outcome of the survey revealed a need to improve the health of the population in two major categories, chronic diseases, and behavioral health. Cost acted as the main factor contributing to the prevalence of these health conditions.
Primary health problems affecting people of Albany Community
Albany Community in the Albany County suffers from numerous health conditions, according to the assessment conducted. The Health People 2020 plays an important role in creating better platforms for improving the health of every American by setting goals and providing a recommendation on how to achieve them. The organization works through empowering individuals towards making better and informed health decisions, encouraging collaboration across different communities and cultures, and establishing the impact of health prevention activities. One of the major goals of the Healthy People 2020 is improving access to comprehensive and quality health care services (Healthy People 2020, 2026). Access to quality health among many populations in Albany community has been an issue because of the presence of many factors contributing to health disparities such as low socioeconomic status, cultural incompetence, and lack of social health amenities.
On the other hand, the Albany County community suffers from high prevalence's of chronic diseases, especially obesity. The Windshield survey revealed that as a high percentage of adults and children in the community are obese. The Healthy People 2020 advocates for good nutrition, healthy body weight, and physical activity as essential elements of the overall healthy body of an individual. The goal of the organization is to promote healthy eating habits and engagement in physical activities to reduce obese cases by the year 2020 (Healthy People 2020, 2016).
Finally, Albany community experiences health problems related to the quality of life and well-being. A survey to investigate the community population health revealed more people suffer from poor health conditions and individual well-being. One of the goals of the Healthy People 2020 is improving the health-related quality of life and individual well-being. Most people recorded dissatisfaction with health care practices offered by most health care organizations in the County. Additionally, the high rate of admission and readmission of individuals revealed a problem with the quality of health provided.
The selected problem
All three problems identified in the community carry similar weights. However, the prevention program concentrates on obesity as a health problem affecting the Albany community. The Department of Health of Albany continues to increase awareness and create programs aimed at improving the health status of the community to prevent obesity cases shortly. Community resources such as human service organizations and many other not-for-profit organizations have joined hands to reduce obesity prevalence in Albany County. One of the community resources responsible for addressing the obesity problem is the Designing a Strong and Healthy New York (DASH-NY). The organization collaborates with the New York State government and County health departments to develop policies aimed at reducing obesity and other chronic diseases. It offers to the community training, technical assistance, and supports to promote sustainable changes for increasing access to healthy food (Department of Health, 2015).
Another community resource that plays a significant role in addressing the problem of obesity in Albany community is the American Red Cross Society. The International Federation of the Red Cross warned about the high rate of obesity cases in America among undernourished because of increased cases of food crisis (Sapa-AFP, 2011). The American Red Cross plays the role of providing food aids to communities affected by malnutrition and campaigning for healthy eating habits. The society’s contribution helps in reducing cases of obesity, especially among children in the community.
Another community resource helping address the problem of diabetes in the Albany County is the Dietary Guidelines for Americans supported by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and has been in action since 2010. The resource helps in guiding Americans on appropriate eating and physical patterns that focus on reducing the number of calories consumed, having an informed food choice, and engaging in physical activities. The resource creates a lot of impact in the Albany County, New York by offering the population daily diet guidelines through the development of educational materials and communications, developing nutritionally related programs (U.S. Department of Agriculture U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2010).
Primary prevention topic
The high number of obese Americans requires a quick intervention plan. The Albany County spends more money improving health needs of people with obesity and experiences high mortality rates from diseases associated with obesity, such as hypertension, heart attack, and depression among others. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) suggests different topics for preventing obesity and other chronic diseases. The following program will utilize the community level strategies’ approach in dealing with the problem. The community level approach develops strategies aimed at creating awareness at the community level to make people more informed about causes, prevention, and avoidance of obesity. The topic will address the community level strategy to increase the availability of healthier food choices in households and public service venues. The analysis of the eating habits of Albany people revealed limitations in health food choices, especially in homes with low socioeconomic status. Moreover, foods offered in public venues such as institutions; public gatherings are of low quality and poor nutrient value. High intakes of fats in the food cause ineffectiveness in community level nutrition initiatives. Moreover, most schools-going children and college students are used to eating junk food in fast-shops that are major contributors towards the obese body. The preventive program will address these issues and educate the community on how to maintain a good diet by practicing healthy eating behaviors. The other strategy proposed by the program includes engaging in frequent exercises. The strategy will be propagated through creating effective infrastructures for exercise and creating awareness to the community to engage in different sporting activities.
References
Albany County. (2016). Department of Health. Albany County.com. Retrieved March 19, 2016,
York State. Retrieved March 19, 2016, from https://www.health.ny.gov/prevention/obesity/prevention_activities/
Healthy People 2020. (2016). Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Obesity. HealthyPeople2020.gov.
Retrieved March 19, 2016, https://www.healthypeople.gov/2020/leading-health-indicators/2020-lhi-topics/Nutrition-Physical-Activity-and-Obesity
Jobin-Davis, K., Medvesky, M., Roy, A., and Baker, R. (2013). Community health needs
http://www.albanycounty.com/Libraries/Department_of_Health/2013_Community_Health_Assessment_and_CHIP_for_Albany_County.sflb.ashx
Lehman, D., Fenza, P., and Hollinger-Smith, L. (n.d). Diversity & Cultural competency in health
care settings. Motherlifeways: Ways to Age Well. Available at http://www.matherlifewaysinstituteonaging.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/diversity-and-cultural-competency-in-health-care-settings.pdf
Sapa-AFP. (2011, Sep. 11). Obese outnumbers hungry: Red Cross. TimesLive. Retrieved March
19, 2016 from http://www.timeslive.co.za/world/2011/09/22/obese-outnumber-hungry-red-cross
United States Census Bureau. (2015). QuickFacts, Albany County, New York. Retrieved March
19, 2016, from http://www.census.gov/quickfacts/table/PST045215/36001
U.S. Department of Agriculture U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (2010). Dietary
Guidelines for Americans. Retrieved from http://health.gov/dietaryguidelines/dga2010/DietaryGuidelines2010.pdf
