Discussion 1 Marlon Rodriguez
Population and Community Health Promotion
Health practitioners and the general public play a competitive role in population health prevention and promotion. Health care providers such as nurses and doctors sometimes have multifaceted roles as holistic healthcare providers to promote community health. They can organize public outreach programs and coordinate health education to enlighten the community about well-being. The paper explores specific actions health providers can take regardless of their professional practices to promote community health.
Health Education and Promotion Programs
Health education is an everyday social science used by health providers to promote health behaviors and well-being in the community. Health education initiatives focus on providing essential knowledge and information to the community members and practical skills that enable the public to adopt healthy behaviors (Whitehead, 2018). Health education increases health knowledge and influences the health attitudes of individuals. For instance, nurses can educate the public about the benefits of child immunization in preventing diseases and boosting immunity. Knowledge of immunization can influence individuals who have specific attitudes toward vaccination to seek these services, thus promoting the well-being of children. Health promotion is much broader since it is done by professionals while responding to health developments. It helps address concerns related to health inequities and access within the communities.
Community Assessment and Intervention Planning
Community diagnosis or assessment is an action that health practitioners conduct to identify factors that promote the health of a community and develop strategies to improve them. Health practitioners then design specific goals and programs that help solve particular health concerns identified (Lee et al., 2017). The nurse collaborates with community members to conduct a community assessment and diagnosis processes to help them plan community programs. A nurse must perform a community diagnosis for them to implement a nursing intervention that helps solve the problem. Nurses conduct the diagnosis process to ensure the interventions’ efficiency, promote standardization, and conduct follow-up activities, monitoring, and evaluation while assessing if they have achieved their goals. A nurse can also plan health activities and programs that entail fundamental behavior changes. For example, nurses can coordinate nutritional assessment or diagnosis to prevent concerns of being underweight, malnutrition, or overweight in the community.
Advocate Social Change
Social change initiatives focus on the interaction of humans and the transformation of institutions and functions. Nurses can promote social change by advocating for better policies that solve health inequities. Professional advocacy that orients towards better policies can address social conditions and the health inequalities that marginalized and vulnerable populations face. Health practitioners deal directly with the patients and members of the community and can quickly identify concerns that influence poor health outcomes, such as insurance. They have an influential voice and can articulate social change programs that inspire policy formulations. Also, they play a vital role in health policy formulation since they offer evidence-based insights that make the policies effective in achieving their goals. For example, nurses can advocate for equity and equality in health insurance for the LGBTQ community.
Coordinate Outreach Programs
Outreach programs aim to improve, support, and uplift the conditions of vulnerable groups within the communities. The main goals of the outreach programs are to improve knowledge, promote civic engagement and strengthen the community’s needs by addressing them (Suresan et al., 2019). Also, the health practitioners promote partnership by engaging in outreach programs. Nurses play a central goal in community outreach programs and create awareness of the health issues besides informing the community of better approaches to manage the concerns.
References
Lee, G., Pickstone, N., Facultad, J., & Titchener, K. (2017). The Future of Community Nursing: Hospital in the Home. British Journal of Community Nursing, 22(4), 174-180.
Discussion 2 Danait
Population and Community Health Promotion
The promotion of population and community health mainly encompasses empowering individuals to increase control over their health and its determinants via
multisectorial action to increase healthy behaviors and health literacy efforts (Li et al., 2020). Healthcare professionals can take multiple specific measures to
promote community and population health. They are as follows;
Planning and implementation of Health education programs
Health education plays a fundamental role in community and population health. Notably, health professionals can plan educational programs on health to
enlighten communities and populations on the significance of being responsible for their health protection. Through health education, individuals gain ample
knowledge on health literacy practices that aid them in taking the best preventive measures to stay healthy. There are several ways in which healthcare education
can be offered, including sharing crucial healthcare information and encouraging specific skills and trust, which are imperative in bringing improvement to the
health of communities and populations (McKenzie et al., 2022). They also educate them on nutritional and dietary needs to tackle malnutrition, a condition that
tends to arise from consuming foods lacking certain nutrients or in the wrong proportions. By being informed, communities and populations can adopt appropriate
lifestyle behaviors that imply a healthy life.
Getting involved in the assessment of community needs and health planning
Healthcare professionals can execute diagnoses to find out what people are suffering from. The principal goal of healthcare professionals is to resolve any
existing or potential health issue (McKenzie et al., 2022). Recognizing a specific r potential health issue implies that the healthcare professionals are determined to
ensure all health issues are resolved excellently. Involving communities and populations in the process is instrumental as it ensures individuals access high-quality
services at a reasonable price.
Advocating for social change
Promoting community and population health also entails healthcare professionals advocating for policies to enhance social conditions, influencing the health
of less fortunate populations. Social and economically challenged individuals are less likely to be in good health because of the challenges they face while
accessing quality healthcare services (Marshall-Lee et al., 2020). Besides, they tend to experience premature deaths compared to those who are socially and
economically advantaged. Therefore, advocating for social change reforms is crucial as it promotes fairness, equality, and justice to the less fortunate in society.
Strategies to promote sexual and reproductive health
Health professionals can enlighten communities and populations on strategies to promote reproductive and sexual health, including ensuring increased access
to reproductive and sexual health services and family planning services (Schaaf et al., 2022). Through this, it becomes relatively easy for individuals to take
measures before indulging in sexual affairs, and aids them in freeing themselves from sexually transmitted infections.
Overall, health professionals play an essential role in articulating the need for health promotion among populations and communities by inspiring more
comprehensive policy responses, educating them, and even getting involved in assessing their healthcare needs. Also, they take part in activism via supporting
social movements and political parties that lobby for progressive taxation, affordable childcare, and other measures that tend to lessen health disparities. They also
participate in health research and employ collected data on social determinants to ensure health needs for populations and communities are met. Lastly, they use
evidence-based research that, in turn, enables them to provide quality healthcare services.
References
Li, X., Krumholz, H. M., Yip, W., Cheng, K. K., De Maeseneer, J., Meng, Q., … & Hu, S. (2020). Quality of primary health care in China: challenges and
recommendations. The Lancet, 395(10239), 1802-1812.
Marshall-Lee, E. D., Hinger, C., Popovic, R., Miller Roberts, T. C., & Prempeh, L. (2020). Social justice advocacy in mental health services: Consumer,
community, training, and policy perspectives. Psychological services, 17(S1),12.
McKenzie, J. F., Neiger, B. L., & Thackeray, R. (2022). Planning, implementing and evaluating health promotion programs. Jones & Bartlett Learning.
Schaaf, M., Arnott, G., Chilufya, K. M., Khanna, R., Khanal, R. C., Monga, T., & Wegs, C. (2022). Social accountability as a strategy to promote sexual and