Overall, this semester has completely re-shaped my view on
nursing and the role that nurses play in many different areas of health care.
Community health and public nursing has been a very interesting area and an
eye-opening learning experience for me during the lectures and blogging. I will
admit my view of the nursing role thus far was narrower and stereotypical. I now
have distanced my views of nurses only having the role of one-on-one patient
care within a hospital. I knew that other careers were possible as a nurse; I
just did not know the degree and variety of areas that nurses can control and
impact. This semester, we learned about how to care for an overall population
and how to intervene appropriately during a crisis or disaster using the public
health intervention wheel. Learning about the public health intervention wheel taught me how to outreach to a community or mediate to a population via social media. Epidemiology is the study of distribution of disease
and physiologic conditions in human population and the identification of
factors which influence this distribution. This area of nursing was fascinating
to me. Public health nurses can identify issues/trends within the community and
act appropriately on it. Additionally, nurses promote and implement upstream thinking
when responding to an issue in order to improve a community from its core versus
just the “curing” the surface. This semester I was able to synthesis not only
the
skill of giving an influenza shot (NRSG 345), but connect it to the
importance of educating a community about getting this annual shot. There is a direct correlation of a population’s health and compliance to a vaccination regimen or lack thereof. Finally, when our groups worked on our community papers, I
learned about the steps within a disaster plan. Although each
community may implement a slightly different plan, mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery are essential components of a
successful disaster plan.
I really enjoyed when our guest lecturer, Heidi Giese, came
in to speak about working in Pediatrics and communicating with children and
families. Her lecture allowed us as a class to experience a hospital visit/stay
from a child’s point of view. We as nurses need to be able to understand a
child’s developmental stage physically and mentally and treat them
appropriately. We need to be able to use the correct terms so that a child can
understand and not be scared. An example of this would be instead of saying
urine say “pee.” The different
developmental stages determine how to speak to the patient as well as how
involved a parent or guardian needs to be. An example is during a physical assessment
of a toddler (1-3 years old). The patient will be more fearful and need to have a parent
present for reassurance. It is common, also, for parents to have their children sit on their laps during an assessment. This helps with cooperation and contains the child from moving too much.
Asthma is the leading chronic condition of children in the United
States and is the primary cause of school absences. Asthma is the chronic inflammation of the
bronchial tubes caused by inflammatory cell infiltration. Symptoms include
coughing (especially at night time), wheezing, and shortness of breath, chest
tightness pain, or pressure. A nurse’s role includes monitoring and assessing
airway clearance, education about care and management, and medication teaching
and administration. Nurses should demonstrate correct administration and have
patients (especially children) periodically show how they use their inhaler. The
correct technique is essential especially when a patient needs quick-relief during
attacks and outbursts. Finally nurses can play a role in educating about
keeping track of environmental factors and how trends within seasons and certain states
can help someone with asthma plan for their care. Visiting the AIRnow.gov
website may help those who suffer from asthma understand the air content for
the day. Outdoor activities and carrying enough
medication can be planned out ahead of time.
Overall, this semester has completely re-shaped my view on
nursing and the role that nurses play in many different areas of health care.
Community health and public nursing has been a very interesting area and an
eye-opening learning experience for me during the lectures and blogging. I will
admit my view of the nursing role thus far was narrower and stereotypical. I now
have distanced my views of nurses only having the role of one-on-one patient
care within a hospital. I knew that other careers were possible as a nurse; I
just did not know the degree and variety of areas that nurses can control and
impact. This semester, we learned about how to care for an overall population
and how to intervene appropriately during a crisis or disaster using the public
health intervention wheel. Learning about the public health intervention wheel taught me how to outreach to a community or mediate to a population via social media. Epidemiology is the study of distribution of disease
and physiologic conditions in human population and the identification of
factors which influence this distribution. This area of nursing was fascinating
to me. Public health nurses can identify issues/trends within the community and
act appropriately on it. Additionally, nurses promote and implement upstream thinking
when responding to an issue in order to improve a community from its core versus
just the “curing” the surface. This semester I was able to synthesis not only
the skill of giving an influenza shot (NRSG 345), but connect it to the
importance of educating a community about getting this annual shot. There is a direct correlation of a population’s health and compliance to a vaccination regimen or lack thereof. Finally, when our groups worked on our community papers, I
learned about the steps within a disaster plan. Although each
community may implement a slightly different plan, mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery are essential components of a
successful disaster plan.
I really enjoyed when our guest lecturer, Heidi Giese, came
in to speak about working in Pediatrics and communicating with children and
families. Her lecture allowed us as a class to experience a hospital visit/stay
from a child’s point of view. We as nurses need to be able to understand a
child’s developmental stage physically and mentally and treat them
appropriately. We need to be able to use the correct terms so that a child can
understand and not be scared. An example of this would be instead of saying
urine say “pee.” The different
developmental stages determine how to speak to the patient as well as how
involved a parent or guardian needs to be. An example is during a physical assessment
of a toddler (1-3 years old). The patient will be more fearful and need to have a parent
present for reassurance. It is common, also, for parents to have their children sit on their laps during an assessment. This helps with cooperation and contains the child from moving too much.
Asthma is the leading chronic condition of children in the United
States and is the primary cause of school absences. Asthma is the chronic inflammation of the
bronchial tubes caused by inflammatory cell infiltration. Symptoms include
coughing (especially at night time), wheezing, and shortness of breath, chest
tightness pain, or pressure. A nurse’s role includes monitoring and assessing
airway clearance, education about care and management, and medication teaching
and administration. Nurses should demonstrate correct administration and have
patients (especially children) periodically show how they use their inhaler. The
correct technique is essential especially when a patient needs quick-relief during
attacks and outbursts. Finally nurses can play a role in educating about
keeping track of environmental factors and how trends within seasons and certain states
can help someone with asthma plan for their care. Visiting the AIRnow.gov
website may help those who suffer from asthma understand the air content for
the day. Outdoor activities and carrying enough
medication can be planned out ahead of time.
Amber,
ReplyDeleteYou did a great job of summarizing the semester up, it’s interesting looking back and realizing how much we actually learned. The public health wheel was one thing we spent a lot of time working with in class and I feel it really sums up all of the public health nurse. I was also very surprised to learn how different of a mindset is required to care for an entire population versus a single patient or client. Public health nurses truly are the jack of all trades and are involved in so many aspects of the community such as disaster planning as you mentioned.
I appreciate you bringing up Heidi’s lecture, it was eye-opening to learn about what health care may look like from a child’s eye, something that up to this point we haven’t thought much about. It’s important for us as nurses to remember that kids are not just little adults, they think very differently so we need to adapt to that way of thinking. For example, with an adult you may describe getting a shot as a “stick” but if you were to say this to a child they would literally think you were going to put a stick from a tree in their arm. I think it is useful to know how to communicate with children no matter what area of nursing we specialize in because in most cases we will be dealing with educating families. In order to minimize fear and confusion in children of these families we can practice and apply these communication techniques.
I also chose to write about asthma in my blog post simply because it is such a common disease that affects a lot of American children (not to mention many adults as well). You stressed the importance of education about medications and care management which is, in my opinion, a crucial role for the public health nurse. Asthma is treatable so by proper education we can minimize exasperations and the amount of children that end up in the hospital related to their asthma. Excellent post!