The Role of the Nurse in the Community - Essay Example

Running head: REFLECTION ON COMMUNITY HEALTH NURSING Reflection on community nursing (school) Reflection on Community Health Nursing Introduction A nurse carries out various general functions which relate to the delivery of health services and care. This paper shall provide a reflection on community health nursing. In the clinical setting, there are various opportunities to carry out these functions. This paper shall discuss the functions of the nurse are considered community nursing. It shall analyze how this role works with or in the community. It shall also describe the student nurse’s role in the community setting, explaining how the nurse is an advocate for social justice, how he preserves cultural safety, and how he promotes equity and access to health resources for all. This paper shall also present relevant potential ethical and/or legal issues which may affect a nurse’s professional activities. Discussion My placement in Swinburne Health Services is considered as community nursing because I was able to work with various members of the community in order to ensure disease prevention, to sustain health, and to address other current health issues. Community nursing is focused on promoting and supporting the patient’s independence away from the hospital setting, and maintaining such through health promotion practices, safety, and a healthy lifestyle in the community setting (Brox and Froystein, 2006). Community setting is about caring for the patient away from the hospital setting. In effect, most patients in this setting are discharged from the hospital, are relatively healthy, or are at risk for various diseases. It is important for student nurses in this setting therefore to ensure that the individuals in the community would stay healthy through the implementation of health promotion activities (Brox and Froystein, 2006). The role of the student nurse in the community setting is founded on health promotion and monitoring practices (Judd, et.al., 2001). The nurse in the community setting is more involved with the members of the community and he is more likely to enable clear monitoring of the community’s activities. In my exposure in the Swinburne Health Setting, I was able to monitor the health of newly discharged patients, as well as the members of the community in general. I found out that as a student nurse, I served as a more approachable health representative in the community setting. The members of the community were very much open to me and were much more inclined to share their concerns and their symptoms, symptoms which they did not often feel like sharing to the other health professionals, especially those in the hospital setting. They felt more at home in the community setting and they included me as a person within their comfort zone. This community nursing role works well because it makes the health promotion process more acceptable to the members of the community and higher in compliance (Frankish and Bishop, 1999). My role in the community was effective because I was able to see the members and interact with them within their comfort zone and in the process, and I was able to glean a more accurate picture of their habits, and their health issues which bear impact on their overall health. I also carried various tasks including administering injections, changing dressings, health promotion for international students (including sexual health, contraception and STIs and Needle Syringe Program), and venipuncture for all blood tests. These tasks helped develop my skills as a future nurse. Community-based health promotion focuses on the essential factors of empowerment, and participation, as well as sustainable development. This emphasis may be considered as opposed to the concepts of evidence-based practice because it is difficult to measure actual outcomes of efficacy and applicability (Judd, et.al., 2001). Conflicts may therefore be triggered by the failure of the health professionals to consider unique qualities of patients as essential elements of their care. In my placement with the Swinburne Health Setting, I was gradually acquainted to the people and their individual qualities (Lomas, 1998). By understanding their culture, I was able to establish a basis for supporting their culture, and to preserve such as part of their personality and overall well-being. My placement and experience with the Swinburne Health Setting gave me the opportunity to seek equity and access to health services for all members of the community. I was able to detect where the deficiencies in health care were and to make the necessary arrangements to ensure that health services were provided for all regardless of age, race, ethnicity, gender orientation, and other demographic considerations. I was also able to detect differences in patterns of behavior in relation to age. As a student nurse, I was able to personally ask the members of the community about the services they were receiving and whether these were adequate and whether these were equitably being distributed to them (Rifkin, 2003). Since the members of the community felt more comfortable with me as health professional in their community, they were able to easily share their concerns and I was able to do my part in ensuring that the services I also offered were within the allowed parameters of health care services. One of the ethical issues which arose during my placement was the fact that health resources in the community setting were often limited or lacking (Charlton, 1996). The health administrators were therefore prompted to make tough decisions on health rationing and even rationalization. These health economic practices are against the basic principles of beneficence (Gillon, 1994). Beneficence is about acting for the benefit of the patient, and also about acting for the best interests of the patient. In the current age of health care budget cuts, the principle of beneficence cannot always be upheld. There is always someone or some health service which would be compromised (Cookson, 2000). I noted how local health authorities were forced to make do with what was allocated to them and to appropriate such funds to fulfill the needs of the people. These allocations are often insufficient to fill the needs of a growing population. In these instances, some sacrifices have been seen in the community, including reductions in services to the elderly and the disabled. Moreover, no new nurses and other health staff are hired to meet the needs of a growing population (Cookson, 2000). As a result, a limited number of health staff is forced to look after a large population – more than they can safely handle in some instances. From these shortages of health staff arise other issues including the increased incidence of medical errors (McKnight, 1994). Conclusion In reflecting on my placement with Swinburne Health Services, I was able to apply my skills in the community setting. In the process, I was able to establish how the different members of the community have unique qualities which all pertain to their care. In the community setting, I was able to note how that I was a less intimidating figure. I was more approachable to the people, and in the process they were more open to me and to the services I was offering. I was also exposed to their health issues, their culture, their habits, and health risks in the community setting – and these factors somehow all contributed to their overall health and their recovery. This is the nature of community nursing – a more involved care which revolves around the care administered to the patient based on personal preferences and circumstances. My placement was therefore able to expose me to the realities of life in the community setting and the health services offered within such setting. Works Cited Brox, J. & Froystein, O. (2005).Health-related quality of life and sickness absence in community nursing home employees: randomized controlled trial of physical exercise. Occup Med (Lond), volume 55 (7): pp. 558-563. Charlton, B. (1996). What is the ultimate cause of socio-economic inequalities in health? An explanation in terms of evolutionary psychology Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, volume 89, pp. 3-8. Cookson, R. & Dolan, P. (2000). 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