Community Health Nursing is an umbrella term to include many different types of nurses within the community health arena.  Nurses within the community health world are educated on public health concepts to care for groups of people and groups of culturally diverse populations along with other educational preparedness.  There is a population-focused kind of care that involves using the nursing process.  The implementation of these health programs and services requires this to happen on the educational level of the group, individual, or population that you are directing care for.  

A large number of nurses are employed in Home Health Care providing home health care to individuals who are ill.  Community mental health provides care to individuals with mental health illnesses and/or substance abuse.  Correctional nonhospital nursing provides care within the correctional facility.  Hospice care for patients and families dealing with end-of-life issues.  Occupational health ensures the safety and health of all people in the workplace through research and prevention.  Community health programs that are in your local and rural health departments promoting health prevent illnesses, injury, and premature death.  School nursing brings education, health promotion, and preventative care to children in the school settings to include Colleges and Universities.  State, local, community, and rural health departments are utilized by the population to receive immunizations, breastfeeding classes, wellness classes, and child health classes along with education associated with wellness promotion and disease prevention.  

Another focus of community health is that of Global or World Health.  This is a focus of diseases such at tuberculosis, anthrax, covid19, measles, mumps, rubella, smallpox, among many other diseases.  The National Center of Infectious Diseases helps with preventing illness, disability, and death caused by infectious diseases in the United States and around the World.  The departments that fall under this category are the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory disease Immunization program, National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases, National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB prevention.  These programs provide leadership in preventing and controlling human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome(HIV/AIDS), viral hepatitis, STD’s, and TB (Maurer, F. & Smith, C., 2013).  

The population that is served in community health are of a wide variety of ages populations, ethnicities, educational backgrounds, and races.  A large portion of the population community health serves are those that fall below the poverty level and would qualify for a number of governmental programs such as food stamps, Medicaid, Medicare, social security, low-income housing, CHIP, WIC, and TANIF benefits.  These programs are government-funded (paid by the taxpayers). There is a rising number of uninsured due to a few things: 

1. Strict eligibility requirements from the insurance companies.  
2. The rising cost of private health insurance.

The Affordable Care Act, 2010 was created to help expand health coverage to the 32 million uninsured it was also an attempt to improve healthcare services which controlling cost (Maurer, F. & Smith, C., 2013). 

Overall Community Health is a way to serve the community in a  wide variety of ways for a wide variety of populations such as the elderly,  people of different ethnicities, educational backgrounds, and races.  A large portion of the population community health serves are those that fall below the poverty level and would qualify for a number of governmental programs such as food stamps, Medicaid, medicare, social security, low-income housing, and TANIF benefits.  These programs are government-funded (Florida Health Miami Dade County, 2020).

References:

Maurer, F. & Smith, C. (2013).  The United States Healthcare System.  Community/Public  

Health Nursing Practice: Health for Families and Populations, 5th edition.  Copyright 

Elsevier. ISBN 978-1-4557-0762-1

Florida Health Miami Dade County (2020). http://miamidade.floridahealth.gov/programs-and- (Links to an 

REPLY 2

Community health nursing is a discipline that promotes wellness and protects the community from illness or injury with the progressive and new scientific methods of making health better. This practice considers the different ethnicities and social classes of the people they help to approach them the right way and with the right mindset to help them (McElroy et al., 2020). The community in which they practice benefits the specific group of people who live in a particular location and share similar or different cultures and beliefs. The clients of a community health nurse include its community which consists of individuals of all ages, cultures, and belief systems.

Community health nurses not only help the entire community in general but also individuals and families at large. In faith-based settings and organizations, community health nurses play an essential role in helping those in need, same way as those in homeless shelters and can therefore not afford the medication or care that the rest of the people can (Clark, 2015). Additionally, community health nurses serve the elderly population who need personalized care but cannot be hospitalized for various reasons and still live in their home’s comfort. Also, the chronically ill and those with terminal illnesses but cannot afford hospitalization or are not covered by medical insurance are also in dire need of the services offered by community health nurses who deliver such services to them. In addition, schools and clinics that are not allocated enough finances to hire enough personnel to monitor their health are aided by community health nurses who live to improve the livelihood of the people who live in their community and ensure that they are at their optimum health.

The elderly population is eligible for primary Medicare, which covers hospital insurance and supplemental security income, which is given if the elderly person got their social security benefits from non-well-paying jobs. Also, veterans who are retired or are injured from their time in war are eligible for the department of veteran affairs. This department offers compensation for disabilities, pension, and much more. However, some in need families are not eligible as much as the elderly or veterans, but the government can help them, but only if they are citizens of the United States legally and applied for help in their right residential state.

Many organizations are held responsible for ensuring that senior citizens are well provided for, including Alzheimer’s Association for the elderly living with Alzheimer’s and the Area Agency on Ageing, present in all fifty states in America. It ensures that all the questions about how to provide for them and if the situation arises when they cannot help can point you in the right direction. The United States Department of Veterans Affairs keeps a record of the war heroes and assists those who come out of the war scathed, whether physically or mentally, and help with their day-to-day care while adjusting to the world. The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration provides good quality and treats drug abuse-related illnesses, especially to homeless clients who have nowhere to go.

In conclusion, community health nurses are a necessity in our communities and are of much help in many different situations. Nurses are the foundation of any successful social healthcare program and instrumental in implementing any private or government-funded universal health plan(Fooladi, 2015). While the government reaches out to help those in need, the community still needs those who are nearer to them, like the nurses, to help as they are closer to home.

References

Clark, M. J. (2015). Community health nursing. Prentice Hall.

Fooladi M. M. (2015). The Role of Nurses in Community Awareness and Preventive Health. International journal of community-based nursing and midwifery, 3(4).

McElroy, K. G., Stalter, A. M., & Smith, S. D. (2020). Association of community health nursing educators 2020 research priorities and research in action model. Public Health Nursing, 37(6).

200 WORDS FOR EACH REPLY.