Public health is preventing, educating, revealing, communicating and researching in an effort to optimize the health of a community. Nurses play a critical role in public health by working to prevent avoidable injuries and accidents. Nurses educate the community by providing information to promote healthy behaviors and a healthier environment. Statistics and observations also play a critical role in public health by revealing health discrepancies in communities. Public health involves conducting research that guides best practices. According to the American Public Health Association, “Public health promotes and protects the health of people and the communities where they live, learn, work and play” (2016). Overall, public health is a commitment to improvement.
A windshield survey is “observations of various components of the community, such as housing, open spaces, transportation, race, ethnicity, restaurants, and stores (Truglio-Londrigan & Lewenson, 2013). Observations provide subjective knowledge of a neighborhood. The knowledge and data collected can provide guidance in areas of the neighborhood or community that need improvement and identify areas that promote health. A windshield survey provides information about a community’s determinant of health, or what is promoted and deterring health in the community. Once determinants of health are identified, that information can be used to prioritize community needs and promote action towards resolving those needs.
Survey
Public health is the measures taken by the government to prevent ill health and disease. The government monitor health so that they can develop different programmes and legislation to improve the health and well being of the people in the country. They do this by attempting to solve inequalities, so that all people not matter what are able to live a healthy life. There are eight policies to improve today's public health, these are; planning for health
3.4: Describe ways in which individuals and carers can be supported to overcome their fears.
Assessing a community is an integral part of Community Health Nursing because it leads to an understanding of a community’s overall health status, including its strengths and weaknesses. In turn, the assessment findings can be used to influence positive change in the community and improve the population’s health. One strategy used to assess a population’s health needs is performing a windshield survey. A windshield survey is typically conducted from a moving vehicle and includes a systematic observation of the general community. This paper includes the findings of a windshield survey I completed of Heber, AZ as well as my overall impression of the survey, and personal biases that I need to consider.
Public health deals with the public, community, and society as a whole. It promotes and protects the health of people and the communities where they live, learn, work and play. I believe that the many leadership, teamwork, communication and community skills I have gained through NHS and FBLA, will allow me to excel in the Public Health Field. Which will, in turn, allow me to be the best I can be, enabling me to be a great positive force in my community.
Public health as it is implicated in the lives of the community – it is important to conceptualise what this might mean. Moreover, public health has seen as a multidiscipline perspective in which it can be defined on many levels, and I find that it could be elusive to understand its meaning. By simple understanding of public health, I refer to an approach derived by Winslow (1920) and Baggott (2000).
According to Stanhope and Lancaster, a windshield survey is a "community assessment, the motorized equivalent of a physical assessment for an individual; windshield refers to looking through the car windshield as a nurse in community health drives through the community collecting data.” (Stanhope & Lancaster, 2010, p. 217). These types of surveys are a form of information gathering means, making direct visual observations to assess the social environment of a community while driving, they can even be conducted on foot in the event that a vehicle is not available or possible. The reason of the windshield survey is to gain a better perceptive of the city social environment in terms of its boundaries, housing conditions,
A windshield survey was conducted in the community of Staten Island, New York to obtain a detailed assessment through visual observations within the surroundings of the community. There are many variations of the definition of community one coming from the World Health Organization defining community as “A group of people, often living in a defined geographical area, who may share a common culture, values and norms, and are arranged in a social structure according to relationships which the community has developed over a period of time” (Stanhope & Lancaster, 2012, p. 397). Community health includes the characteristics that promote positive health of the
Public health nursing is an important aspect of nursing field, which contributes tremendously to the safety and health of our society. Public health nurses work hard to assure our communities are healthy and are able to attain needed support to be self-sufficient. However, it seems their hard work goes unnoticed by vast majority of our society. This of course, is my opinion, but I would say that if I were to survey various communities, most people would say that “Nurses just work in the hospital”. I could be very wrong.
The purpose of this paper is to address differences between public and community health, research public health resources on a borough, state, and national level as well as review a brief history of those agencies. Whereas public health and community health is often used interchangeably, public health is coordinated on a national, state, and borough scale and public health is a profession that includes more than just nurses. Public health can include emergency personnel, health educators, public officials, public health nurses, social workers, and community individuals. Community health uses information and implements the research from public health arenas to a specific population.
Public health nursing allows nurses to encounter various vulnerable populations on a daily basis. In particular, the elderly make up a large portion of the population, and their vulnerability to the environment and other physical factors is a very important aspect of public health nursing. Epidemiology allows the public health nurse to study and assess vulnerable populations, including the elderly, and create interventions that maximize the health potential of all members of the public.
E) public health and safety: Public health is the science of preventing diseases, prolonging lives, researching diseases and improving the health of communities. Public health also deals with mental health, education, motor-vehicle safety, safer workplaces, healthier foods, drinking water, the use of tobacco, and healthy women and babies.
Public health means so many things, in the past it was called “health for the poor”, “washing your hands”, and taking care of “vulnerable populations” (Riegelman & Kirkwood, 2015 p. 4). In essence those are good definitions, but it is more than that definitions, public health is considered a
The roal of public health nursing is to promote and protect the health of the population. This proactive approach does not limit their scope of practice to health concerns of individuals but also to developing and implementing programs and policies that help enhance the health of populations. The role of public health nurses is to focus on population centered care with the outcome of promoting health, preventing disability and disease, and improving the quality of life. An effective public health nurse is able to evaluate assessment data to define population diagnoses and set priorities accordingly. They can also serve as advocates for individuals and families in the population to develop policies, access resources, and protect their
Public health nurses "play a strategic role in helping reduce environmental and lifestyle-related health hazards by promoting a positive lifestyle, including exercise, stress management, accident prevention, weight maintenance, and nutrition education that is sensitive to socio-economic status and cultural beliefs” ("Obesity's Impact on Public Health Nursing," n.d.). Nurses can help by involving themselves in policy development by being active participants in the policy process as it closely resembles the nursing process. Through community assessments, public health nurses can determine health factors by assessing the socioeconomic, environmental, and behavioral factors of the population to determine interventions
Public health is a dynamic field of medicine that is concerned primarily with improving the health of populations rather than just the health of individuals. Winslow (1920) defined public health as;