Nursing Care and Crimes in Newark, New Jersey - Research Paper Example

? Nursing Care and Crimes in Newark, New Jersey Nursing Care and Crimes in Newark, New Jersey Crimes have been rampant everywhere. Despite of the efforts put on by the government and the civilians to eliminate the existence, they still persist in the society. Various forms of crimes may happen whenever and wherever people are present. From simple stealing like pick pocketing to aggravate crimes such as killing, crime may happen without the public knowledge. Its existence drives fear to the locality and may be detrimental to the daily lives of people there. Crimes affect the overall productivity of the area. People will not visit the place and economic activities will downturn. Also the health assistance and care are very much affected in that area. Ambulance, first aid kits and many medical staffs may be needed in case any crimes arise as they may serve as life support to the victims in case they are injured. For the paper, crimes will be studied and their effects upon the lives of people in the place and the demands for the health and nursing assistance will be analyzed. SDS or Symptom Distress Scale will be in focus to check out the crime effects upon the people in Newark, New Jersey. New Jersey is an American State located at the Atlantic portion of the world. It is surrounded by places like Atlantic Ocean, Pennsylvania, New York and Delaware (Fredeen, 2001, p. 7). In 2009 to 2010, a study revealed that New Jersey was the part of the top three wealthy States in America based upon the income per family. Also among the American States, it was known to get the 11th place in terms of population among American States (United States Census Bureau, 2010). New Jersey also became very important in American history as it provided the place for battles in the American Revolutionary War. It also serves as the home of American Indians since the time before the Europeans set foot on the lands of New Jersey (Fredeen, 2001, p. 8). When the region reached the 19th century, industries boom in the region and factories became the trend. Factories were built everywhere as those led to the growth and development of New Jersey (Karcher, 1998, p. 138). New Jersey then has several towns and cities and Newark in particular is the focus of the study. Newark is the biggest city in New Jersey consisting of more than 270000 people (Fredeen, 2001, p. 8). It also caters to various schools famous in USA like Rutgers University and University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey. Being the center in New Jersey, it is also the place for ships, planes and trains from cargo to passenger types. Its location is on the Western part of Manhattan and also near to Atlantic Ocean that allowed the city to have its own port. That port serves as the hub for shipments going to New York. The city also has Newark Liberty International Airport which is a very popular local airport (Westergaard, 2006). The races in Newark are varying that also come with the diverse cultures (Fredeen, 2001, p. 7). Its communities are different from one another having busy streets and silent places. As Newark serves as a city and busy region of New Jersey, crimes happen in higher rate than other locations. It was even labeled as one of the cities in USA with major threats and crimes (Roberts and Yeager, 2004, p. 837). Despite of that label, a major improvement occurred when the cases of murder went down recent years. Surveys were then conducted by different groups and they found Newark to be consistently part of the upper 25 towns and cities with many crimes around United States (Sperling and Sander, 2007, p. 329). Probably, Newark experiences its upward turn, but it still faces other problems like healthcare. In analyzing the healthcare support needed, a model called SDS or Symptom Distress Scale is used. It is also used to know the condition of the patients and how urgently the medical attention is needed (Bowling, 2001, p. 35). It then focuses on the state of mind or the psyche of the person being measured by the scale. It came from the Symptom Checklist which makes use of a questionnaire that the patient must answer and leads to understanding the psychiatric condition of the patient. Symptom Checklist then originated from Hopkins Symptom Checklist wherein 58 questions were contained. It described about six symptom categories. The improved checklist then contained 90 questions with nine subscales. All the scaling models then experienced problems in specifically describing each dimensions of mental illnesses. The results were fluctuating that made the scale not very reliable (MSHIP, n.d.). McCorkle and Young (1978) then developed a symptom distress scale tested on fifty-three patients with advanced to terminal diseases. The results had scores of ten to forty one, but the scale still needs further studies as to its accuracy when it comes to other medical conditions and symptoms. The study then was followed by a more recent research on the scale created for cancer patients. Cleeland et. al. (2000) made use of 26 symptoms and six items answered by 527 respondents going out of the hospital, 30 patients for transplantation service and another 113 for outpatients. The scale was then put into test using statistics and lessened the symptom numbers on the list. The statistical and numerical analyses became effective in making a more accurate scale for cancer patients. SDS can also be used outside of cancer. In particular, SDS model can be used to check the conditions of the community in general, as a client for healthcare through surveys and questionnaires and identifying the factors that affect the mood of the community as a whole. It can be applied to Newark, New Jersey since that city is known for rampant crimes and poverty that may be suspected to be a great cause of distress among the people and community as a whole. Also the changes that might have happened throughout its history may have significant effects and impacts on the wellbeing and demand for healthcare in the locality of Newark. Newark is truly experiencing socio-economic challenges as proven by studies like the ones rendered by Elliot et.al. (2000) who reported that the Hispanic community in Newark experienced the drastic changes as reforms in policies and political issues occurred. Activism and planning for the community were assessed through the help of the neighborhood. Surveys and focus groups were the methods used to gather the data. Surveys were used to quantitatively analyze the condition of the grassroots of the Hispanic community. Afterwards ten focus groups were formed for the qualitative approach in studying the condition of the neighborhood. The results for the two approaches matched as the team were able to find out that crimes, youth conflicts and violence became more prevalent than the problems of aggravated health conditions and housing problems. Elliot et.al. (2000) also pointed out that other problems were also identified in the community such as social and environmental challenges, but the distressing daily living in the neighborhood became more rampant and covered the demands for wellness. Another encountering problem on Newark is on the healthcare itself as it faces several scrutiny and anomalies. It occurs as several publicities on several crises happening in the locality and even on the nation itself. In response to the issues even on the health sector, new regulations were passed that led to restructuring of the healthcare system. Techniques had been installed by the government to ensure the ease of investigations on the cases happening in the healthcare industry. Certain kinds of awareness were done to combat the improper decorum in the healthcare. Misconduct reporting, privacy of the records there, rules and regulations for healthcare staffs, and defenses on healthcare crimes are considered for the awareness (Olinsky et al., 2007, p. 41). In response to the needs of the Newark neighborhood and the issues in the healthcare system, the system itself went several changes to cope up with the issues and solve the problems promptly. Restructuring of the charity program of the healthcare system happened to cater the poorest of the poor and rate-setting system was abolished as those moves led to the expansion of healthcare access to the grassroots of Newark. Despite of the efforts, the healthcare providers in the inner core of the city were experiencing conflicts and declining quality of service. The increase in competition led to business-thinking among the healthcare providers that led to higher costs and fees for services that reduced the access to proper health assistance by the poor. The new system of payment among hospitals affected the performance of the healthcare staffs to cater the needs of the community as they struggle financially. Policies and regulations in New Jersey have the big effect in the activities of the healthcare system, like the units of hospitals that struggle and transfer in places just to survive and continue to cater the medical needs of the neighborhood (Mechanic et.al, 1997). Other problems also occur in Newark that the healthcare providers must be also looked at like the lead poisoning (Hembree, 2008) and substance abuse prevalent in the community (Ebener and Greenwood, 1993; Windsor, 2010). Substance use had been rampant together with the distress in the community that may be attributed to the surroundings, educational attainment and job opportunities. In particular, African-American community had the lowest health condition compared to other neighborhoods in the city. That community rated very high for substance abuse and cases of HIV. The cases of heroin use attributed to the majority of the patients who seek treatment and rehabilitation. HIV cases were also rampant, especially to the drug users who made use of injections for taking in the drug. HIV and hepatitis were passed on through the sharing of needles that became a growing problem in Newark (Windsor, 2010). Another problem is the lead poisoning among the children in Newark. Children were detected to have high blood levels and a change in behavior that may become detrimental to their lives in the long run. Lead also decreased the IQ of the children that showed how it slowed down the mental processes and capabilities of children. In response, programs regarding the harm of lead and the use of lead on gasoline, paints and food cans must be implemented to avoid further damages (Hembree, 2008). With those factors, SDS model can be used to quantitatively measure the distress level of the community that may contribute to the level of demand for healthcare assistance. Healthcare providers then must strengthen their tie-ups through collaborations and growing networks to give the quality health assistance even to the poorest of the poor. The local government also has an important rule as it has the power to put up regulatory policies to support and further enhance the healthcare industry in Newark. References Bowling, A. (2001). Measuring disease: a review of disease-specific quality of life measurement scales. United Kingdom: Open University Press. Fredeen, C. (2001). New Jersey. USA: Lerner Publications. Ebener, P. and Greenwood, P. (1993). Substance abuse problems and programs in Newark. USA: RAND. Elliot, N., Quinless, F. and Parietti, E. (2000). Assessment of a Newark neighborhood: Process and outcomes. Journal of Community Health Nursing, 17. Retrieved from http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1207/S15327655JCHN1704_3 Hembree, J. (2008). Preventing childhood lead poisoning in Newark: Policy recommendations to reduce lead exposure among young children. Retrieved from http://crcw.princeton.edu/newark/5lead.pdf Karcher, A. (1998). New Jersey’s multiple municipal madness. USA: Rutger’s University Press. Mechanic, R., Ginsburg, S., Williams, M., Kates, J. and Tu H. (1997, September). Health system change in Newark, New Jersey. Health System Change. Retrieved from http://www.hschange.com/CONTENT/220/220.pdf Mental Health Statistics Improvement Program. (n.d.). Symptom Distress Scale. MHSIP Online. retrieved from http://www.mhsip.org/library/pdfFiles/sympdiss.pdf Olinsky, M., Wenik, J. and Horwitz, W. (2007, February). Government and internal investigations: Special issues for healthcare providers. New Jersey Lawyer. Retrieved from http://www.njsba.com/images/content/1/0/1002006/Feb07.pdf#page=41 Roberts, A. and Yeager, K. (2004). Evidence-based practice manual: Research and outcome measures in health and human services. USA: Oxford University Press. Sperling, B. and Sander, P. (2007). Cities ranked and rated: More than 400 metropolitan areas evaluated in the U.S. and Canada. New Jersey: Wiley Publishing. United States Census Bureau. (2010). State median income. Retrieved from http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/income/data/statemedian/index.html. Westergaard, B. (2006). New Jersey: A guide to the state. USA: Rutger’s University Press. Windsor, L. (2010, September). Substance use and treatment in Newark: Voices from African American distressed communities. Policy Brief. Retrieved from http://www.cbhs- cjr.rutgers.edu/pdfs/Policy_Brief_Sept_2010.pdf Read More