NUR 2868 How Can You, One Nurse, Educate Clients in Your Facility/Neighborhood/Community?
NUR 2868 How Can You, One Nurse, Educate Clients in Your Facility/Neighborhood/Community?
NUR 2868 How Can You, One Nurse, Educate Clients in Your Facility/Neighborhood/Community?
The ANA has stated, “Education for those in the
health-care professions must increase in depth and breadth as scientific
knowledge expands” (Catalano, 2012, p.91) According to Catalano, there has
been a lack of adequate preparation for educating clients with self-management
concerns, particularly clients with chronic illnesses, and this lack of
education is a serious violation of ethical responsibilities by health care
providers.
Do you agree or disagree with these statement and why? Is
the failure to properly educate clients the fault of the Nurse? Does the
Nurse’s level of education matter? Why do you feel that way?
This pack provides practical help and guidance to a nurse1 undertaking community health
needs assessment. It provides information and advice on the stages of needs assessment,
enabling the nurse to complete the process realistically within her/his everyday work. This
pack does not assume any prior knowledge of the subject.
What is a community health needs assessment?
Community health needs assessment is a process that:
describes the state of health of local people;
enables the identification of the major risk factors and causes of ill health; and
enables the identification of the actions needed to address these.
A community health needs assessment is not a one-off activity but a developmental process
that is added to and amended over time. It is not an end in itself but a way of using
information to plan health care and public health programmes in the future.
The steps of community health needs assessment are as follows.
Profiling
the collection of relevant information that will inform the nurse about the state
of health and health needs of the population; and
analysis of this information to identify the major health issues.
Deciding on priorities for action
Planning public health and health care programmes to address the priority issues
Implementing the planned activities
Evaluation of health outcomes
Why do it?
Needs assessment will enable the nurse to:
plan and deliver the most effective care to those in greatest need;
apply the principles of equity and social justice in practice;
ensure that scarce resources are allocated where they can give maximum health
benefit; and
1
The term “nurse” is used as a generic term throughout this pack to cover all nurses, midwives and public
health nurses.
2
work collaboratively with the community, other professionals and agencies to
determine which health issues cause greatest concern and plan interventions to
address those issues.
Concepts and principles of health needs assessment
Defining “health” and “need”
This pack uses a holistic model of health, emphasizing the social, economic and cultural
factors that affect health as well as individual behaviour. The concept of “need” used in this
pack incorporates those needs felt and expressed by local people as well as those defined by
professionals. It moves beyond the concept of demand and takes account of people’s
capacity to benefit from health care and public health programmes.
Factors affecting health
Health is affected by a number of factors:
the physical environment in which people live, such as the quality of the air they
breathe and the water they drink;
the social environment – the level of social and emotional support people receive
from friends and/or family;
poverty, a significant factor worldwide, which shortens and reduces enjoyment of
life;
behaviour and lifestyle – for example, smoking causes lung cancer and coronary
heart disease so a reduction in this behaviour will reduce the disease; and
family genetics and individual biology – if you come from a healthy family you
have a better chance of staying well.
This pack will encourage the nurse to consider all these risk factors in relation to a
community and make an assessment of their importance.
Involving the community
It is assumed that the nurse using this pack has responsibility for providing nursing
services to a caseload of individual patients and a wider responsibility for improving the
health of the community.
The pack also assumes that the nurse wishes to work in partnership with local people and
will be looking for ways to involve others in her/his work. Community needs assessment
incorporates many of the principles of community development (Appendix 1), which has
been defined as: “…a way of tackling a community’s problems by using the energy and
leadership of the people who live there” (Thomas 1995).
Involving other professionals and agencies
If people feel involved in developing a local health plan they will be more committed to
putting it into action. It is therefore important that all those who will be involved in using
3
the plan are also involved in the health needs assessment process. For the nurse this means
collaborating with other professionals and the local community. Nurses will also need to
agree with their employers on the flexibility and autonomy to change their work patterns
according to the needs identified through the community needs assessment process.
Format of the pack
The pack takes a user-friendly approach to community health needs assessment, guiding
the beginner through the process. Section One outlines the type of information a nurse
needs to think about when creating a profile of the community. Reasons are given for the
inclusion of each piece of information. Section Two gives practical advice on how a nurse
might find this information. Section Three helps the nurse to analyse and use the
information, decide on priorities and create action plans. By working through the pack, the
nurse will gain a basic knowledge of the health needs assessment process and will be able
to begin this task within his/her own work setting.
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