Chapter 1: Public Health and Nursing Practice Flashcards
What is public health?
What society does collectively to assure conditions in which people can be healthy. It is NOT population health.
What is public health nursing?
Developing interventions for individuals, populations, and communities, both locally and from a global perspective
What are the cornerstones of PHN? (8)
- Focuses on the health of entire populations
- Reflects community priorities and needs
- Establishes caring relationships with communities, systems, individuals and families
- Grounded in social justice, compassion, sensitivity to diversity, and respect for the worth of all people, especially the vulnerable
- Encompasses mental, physical, emotional, social, spiritual, and environmental aspects of health
- Promotes health through strategies driven by epidemiological evidence
- Collaborates with community resources to achieve those strategies, but can and will work alone if necessary
- Derives its authority for independent action from the Nurse Practice Act
Principles of PHN: (8)
- The client or “unit of care” is the population.
- The primary obligation is to achieve the greatest good for the greatest number of people or the population as a whole.
- The processes used by public health nurses include working with the client(s) as an equal partner.
- Primary prevention is the priority in selecting appropriate activities.
- The focus is on selecting strategies that create healthy environmental, social and economic conditions in which populations may thrive.
- There is an obligation to actively identify and reach out to all who might benefit from a specific activity or service.
- Optimal use of available resources to assure the best overall improvement in the health of the population is a key element of the practice.
- Collaboration with a variety of other professions, populations, organizations and other stakeholder groups is the most effective way to promote and protect the health of the people.
3 Core functions of PH
Assessment: systematic data collection, analysis, and monitoring of health problems and needs in a population
Policy Development: Using scientific knowledge to develop comprehensive public health policies. Developing policies that support the health of the population through leadership and research
Assurance: Assuring constituents that public health agencies provide the services necessary to achieve agreed-upon goals
What are the 10 essential services of public health?
- Assess and monitor population health status, factors that influence health, and community needs and assets
- Investigate, diagnose, and address health problems and hazards affecting the population
- Communicate effectively to inform and educate people about health, factors that influence it, and how to improve it
- Strengthen, support, and mobilize communities and partnerships to improve health
- Create, champion, and implement policies, plans, and laws that impact health
- Utilize legal and regulatory actions designed to improve and protect the public’s health
- Assure an effective system that enables equitable access to the individual services and care needed to be healthy
- Build and support a diverse and skilled public health workforce
- Improve and innovate public health functions through ongoing evaluation, research, and continuous quality improvement
- Build and maintain a strong organizational infrastructure for public health
Population focused care
Care that goes beyond the individual and ultimately aims to improve the health of aggregates, populations, and communities. Client = population.
What is the Socio-ecological Model/Upstream Approach?
- Multiple determinants of health
- Population and environmental approach are critical
- Links and relationships between levels are crucial
- Multiple strategies by many sectors are needed to achieve desired outcomes
- Includes physical environmental factors
- Includes social environmental factors
- Encompasses neighborhoods, communities, institutions, and policies
Upstream determinants of health: happen before disease sets in
Downstream DoH: happen after disease sets in
What is Healthy People 2030?
- 10-year measurable public health objectives
- Vision: A society in which all people achieve their full potential for health and well-being across the lifespan.
- Mission: To promote and evaluate the nation’s efforts to improve the health and well-being of its people
What are the levels of prevention?
Primary: preventing the development of diseases in health people
Ex: education, making laws (seatbelts, helmets)
Secondary: early detection and treatment of disease
Ex: screenings
Tertiary: preventing further complications in people who already have a disease
Ex: rehab, support groups
Screenings
Checking for presence of disease. Requires follow-up with PCP for final diagnosis. Screenings are not ethical if there are no resources available to diagnose or treat the disease
