Replies to A should be a minimum of 200 words in length.
A
A patient is a person receiving or registered to receive medical treatment. During my career in nursing, I have worked in different settings and with different people needing different levels of care. In rehabilitation center they needed medications, wound care, catheter care, colostomy care among other skilled needs like IV medications and Total Parenteral Nutrition. In the long-term settings, I administered medications, updated their care plans quarterly and as needed if there were any changes like 7 day antibiotic therapy or one week IV hydration and just talking to them. In both cases that I explained I had patients who really needed my help. They depended on me to provide the services I aforementioned. I had a rapport that developed such that the days I was off some patients kept asking where I was. It then made me think of the patients far beyond just giving them medications but have a clear understanding of a wholistic approach.
Public Health Nursing is a population-focused and requires unique knowledge, competences, and skills. Public health nursing roles include advocacy, community organizing health education, political and social norms. The nurses collaborate with agencies and community members. Community health nurses practice in community nursing centers, housing developments, local and state health departments, neighborhood centers, parishes, schools and occupational health programs. The practice of public health nurses is provided in collaboration with several agencies and focused on population characteristics that cross institutional boundaries (Association of Community Health Nursing Education, 2003). At an advanced level public health nurseâs knowledge competences prepare nurses to take leadership roles to assess assets and needs of communities and populations and to propose solutions in partnership.
A clinical nurse works directly with patients who are injured, ill, disabled. The nurse works with patients individually. Depending on what department or unit setting where one works you may treat patients in emergency situations, or chronically ill patients. Clinical nurse is responsible for evaluating patients by checking vital signs, assessing patientsâ symptoms, performing lab tests, administering medication and coordinating care and treatment plans. The main focus of the clinical nurse is to treat patients, save their lives and improve lives at that particular moment. Clinical nurses are found in hospitals, rehabilitation centers, state, local or private hospital settings. In a Hospital setting for example, the nurses can work in the emergency room, in telemetry, or operation room. They can also work in pain management, oncology, Rheumatology or post anesthesia.
Kulbok, P.A., Thatcher, E., Park, E., Meszaros, P.S. (May 31, 2012) “Evolving Public Health
Nursing Roles: Focus on Community Participatory Health Promotion
and Prevention” OJIN: The Online Journal of Issues in Nursing Vol. 17,
No. 2, Manuscript 1. DOI: 10.3912/OJIN.Vol17No02Man0,
https://doi.org/10.3912/OJIN.Vol17No02Man01
Association of Community Health Nursing Educators (2003). Essentials of masterâs level
nursing education for advanced community/public health nursing practice.
Replies to B should be a minimum of 200 words in length.
B
With increased research and evaluation of my community, I can see my individual patients in a more comprehensive way, as well as understand the struggles that face them when they leave the hospital. It gives more empathy and sheds some light on a better way to educate, and perhaps prescribe from inside the hospital. There are a lot of different ways that people go about choosing their paths in life and everyone’s struggles are different, even as we all have our own specific ones. My project was about mental health and I found that people really are quite unaware of their own internal environment and have very little guidance or resource to learn how to manage it. Sending people out onto the merry go round of medication, inpatient treatment and intermittent counseling appointments is only a very small part of the puzzle, and if we rely on only these methods it results in what we often see, which is the revolving door of continuous crisis management and no real resolution or healing.
According to the American Public Health Association (2019), the focus in public health is looking at population health, vs clinical nursing which is focused on the individual. Community health nurses are able to observe their area in a broader, birds eye view, and identify systemic issues and particular challenges that affect whole groups. The example given on the website was about asthma. They stated that where clinical health nursing would be treating the individual patient that arrives at the hospital or clinic, the public health nurse would look at the whole area. How many people have the disease, what could be contributing, is there a public education or resource gap, are these patients able to see a doctor or pick up medications? Is there something contributing that is a community wide issue? Are air quality or home environments contributing? It could be said that the public health nurse is more of a research role including observation, identification of broad issues and suggestions about particular areas that could be improved. from a clinical nurse perspective, we are also public educators and are able to observe trends but addressing them in a community perspective is outside the accepted role we play in an inpatient and more acute setting.
I currently work in the emergency setting but as we have explored the areas that community health impacts, I have more awareness and appreciation for the meaningful impact they can have.
American Public Health Association. (2019). Public Health vs. Clinical Health Professions: Whatâs the Difference? Apha.org. https://www.apha.org/professional-development/public-health-careermart/careers-in-public-health-newsletter/job-searching-salaries-and-more/public-health-vs-clinical-health-professions-whats-the-difference