Preventing Disease in Communities: The Role of Public Health Essay

Our “world” starts with our own community, county, and state, then moves out in concentric rings from that point to include our country and eventually the world. Disease is transmitted from person to person through direct contact, or from a source such as a vector or contaminated water through a variety of means, such as flood waters or even terrorist actions. Individuals with limited or no knowledge of safe sex methods may have unprotected sexual relations and knowingly or unknowingly transmit disease to their partners, then to their partners’ partners, and on and on. Often it is the role of the public health nurse to investigate a disease outbreak, contain it, and then educate others so that the same situation doesn’t happen again. In this Discussion, you will visit a site and interview people who work there about risks for disease transmission, then report on your findings. To prepare, select which site you will visit from the following options: SELECT ONE!! High school nurse’s office Water treatment plant Public health department Pediatrician’s office Create a brief description of your setting, providing some context; for example, how many patients are seen, size or capacity of the facility as applicable, and/or the location of the office or organization. A phone interview or a virtual interview is fine. Just take note of who was interviewed and the method by which they were interviewed. If the location is close to you, you can survey the location without having to interview. Otherwise, you may also visit the local website to support your discussion. Preventing Disease in Communities: The Role of Public Health Essay. Given the current times, these alternative methods are appropriate. Then, during your site visit, pose the questions listed in the following chart: High school nurse What is the school’s policy on giving students advice about birth control? How often do you get requests for information about birth control or how to protect oneself from an STD? How do you track vaccination compliance, and what happens to students who fall out of compliance? Local water treatment plant Where does your community’s water come from? Where is it stored? How often is it tested for purity? What safeguards are in place to prevent tampering with the water supply? Local public health department Does this department have an STD clinic? In addition to testing, does the department offer treatment of one party or both parties? What is the most frequently diagnosed STD? A pediatrician’s office What is your policy on accepting patients who refuse vaccinations? What are the most common reasons parents decline vaccinations for their children in this particular office? What is the policy at this office for giving antibiotics to treat viral syndromes? Now, look at the site you visited through the eyes of the public health nurse (PHN). Imagine you are the PHN and have been asked to investigate an outbreak at this facility. What questions would you ask? What suggestions could you make to avoid a disease outbreak at the facility? What would your role as a change agent be for any deficiencies you find in your on-site inspection? Post your brief description of the site you visited. Share the answers you were given to the questions you posed. Then, respond to the above prompts through the eyes of a PHN asked to investigate an outbreak at this facility. Support your response with references from the professional nursing literature. Note Initial Post: A 3-paragraph (at least 350 words) response. Be sure to use evidence from the readings and include in-text citations. Utilize essay-level writing practice and skills, including the use of transitional material and organizational frames. Avoid quotes; paraphrase to incorporate evidence into your own writing. A reference list is required. Use the most current evidence (usually ≤ 5 years old). Must be wrote in APA 7th edition and source 5 years or less.  Preventing Disease in Communities: The Role of Public Health Essay.

ORDER A PLAGIARISM -FREE PAPER NOW

For this assignment, I conducted a virtual interview with the public health department administrator in our county. During the interview, the administrator expounded on the department’s mission, vision, and critical values. Kub et al. (2017) suggest that the public health department’s role is to protect, promote, and enhance the health of all populations in the county through integrated state and community efforts. The devoted staff, comprising public health nurses, play a fundamental role in supporting and implementing the department’s mission by providing professional services to all populations. The department focuses on the population as a whole and conducts its activities through various networks constituting public health professionals throughout the county. Our public health department’s vision is to promote health throughout life-span by engaging the entire community in their care. The department embraces a holistic approach to care, with the core values being leadership, collaboration, and commitment. Its goal is to inspire a sense of responsibility for health, wellness, and disease prevention. The department develops and implements health initiatives that benefit both residents and visitors.

During the interview, my questions to the public health department administrator centered on sexually transmitted infections. I inquired whether the department has an STD clinic, to which the administrator responded that the department has an STD clinic that offers diagnosis and treatment of these infections. However, the administrator noted that an STD clinic is integrated into the family planning department, which routinely tests for sexually transmitted diseases. When asked whether the clinic offers treatment to one or both partners, the administrator clarified that the department embraces expedited partner therapy (EPT).Preventing Disease in Communities: The Role of Public Health Essay.  EPT is a public health measure where a patient diagnosed with STDs such as gonorrhea and chlamydia leave the clinic with two prescriptions; for them and their sexual partners (Expedited partner therapy: Clinical considerations and public health explorations, 2016). As an advocate for the approach, the administrator emphasized that the strategy effectively prevents sexually transmitted infections by increasing the frequency of partner notification. The administrator revealed that the commonly diagnosed STI is chlamydia.

ORDER A PLAGIARISM -FREE PAPER NOW

As a public health nurse tasked with investigating an outbreak at this facility, I would pose various questions. For instance, I would inquire about how the department makes the public aware of the outbreak. I would also ask of the measures taken by the department to contain the epidemic. These questions would gauge the readiness of the department to prevent disease outbreaks. Sensitizing the public is the public health department’s primary goal to prevent further transmission of disease outbreaks (Kickbusch & Reddy, 2015). I could provide several proposals to avert the disease outbreak in the facility. First, I would emphasize that public health nurses assume their roles in preventing disease outbreaks. According to research, public health nurses sensitize the public through education and administration of vaccinations to control the spread of infectious diseases. Notably, public sensitization during a disease outbreak is only done by nurse leaders at the top of the hierarchy. Second, I would suggest that the health department steps in to assume a leadership role in the community and ascertain that the information provided by nurse leaders to the public is accurate. As a change agent, my roles in correcting any deficiencies found in the department would center on breaking the transmission chain to control the spread of infections. Here, education and guidance on the infection processes and ways to prevent their outbreak are required. Preventing Disease in Communities: The Role of Public Health Essay.

References

Expedited partner therapy: Clinical considerations and public health explorations. (2016). AMA Journal of Ethics, 18(3), 215-228. https://doi.org/10.1001/journalofethics.2016.18.3.ecas3-1603

Kickbusch, I., & Reddy, K. S. (2015). Community matters – why outbreak responses need to integrate health promotion. Global Health Promotion, 23(1), 75-78. https://doi.org/10.1177/1757975915606833

Kub, J. E., Kulbok, P. A., Miner, S., & Merrill, J. A. (2017). Increasing the capacity of public health nursing to strengthen the public health infrastructure and to promote and protect the health of communities and populations. Nursing Outlook, 65(5), 661-664. Preventing Disease in Communities: The Role of Public Health Essay.