Reflective Essay On Community Nursing

Improved Essays
The Community Nursing (3QQ3) course has been an eye opening journey for me in to the world of community nursing. At the start of the initial course doing the practice tools I was quite apprehensive and had no idea what to expect. It was hard in the early few weeks to see how this course would evolve. But, as I became oriented and more familiar with the community the bigger picture began to form. Indeed, the windshield survey was a great tool to assess our community. This was an assessment unlike any other I had performed as the community is a large area with thousands of residents and families. As a nurse, so many nursing actions arise from an assessment and it is imperative to perform a good assessment of your client no matter what issue is. However, when performing an assessment for a community with thousands of inhabitants the traditional head to toe assessment is of little use. In this course, the use of the windshield survey, practice tools, and statistical information are certainly the keys to performing good community assessments. One thing that did surprise me was the amount of detailed local information that can be gathered from Statistics …show more content…
Indeed, a community nurse has a greater proactive and preventative role in population health. I have certainly had the opportunity to solidify this knowledge over the past 11 weeks. Unfortunately, it seems that much of our health care system is focused on reactive interventions rather than preventative ones. Undeniably, a reactive approach is certainly more costly than a preventative one in terms of health care and the sooner governments put more emphasis on preventative health measures the better off we will be as a population. With this understanding, as a BScN student in reactive nursing settings, I will be sure to place a greater emphasis on client health teaching, empowerment, and health

Related Documents

  • Decent Essays

    This course taught me a great deal about the state of health care today and how to proceed with making changes needed for improvements. I gained the confidence needed to present myself as a professional nurse capable of taking what I learned from these courses and applying it to today’s issues and concerns.…

    • 245 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Windshield Survey Tonya Bates Allyson Carter NSG 3068 November 5, 2016 Annette Mathieson, RN MSN Windshield Survey The purpose of the windshield survey is to establish an informal methodology conducted by a community health nurse to obtain basic knowledge about a distinct community. Community assessment is key to planning, implementing, and evaluating strategies to improve the health of a specific community. Through driving and walking a windshield survey provides a subjective of the many physical characteristics of a community .…

    • 2207 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Community Assessment of Ocala, Florida What is a Community Assessment? A community assessment provides an overview of the city as a whole and can be a focused assessment in the specific individuals’ surrounding area in which the individual resides. The assessment includes the location and description of the area, a makeup of the community (age, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status), services provided and ease of access, safety issues of the public, and areas of concern in health care.…

    • 1311 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Essay For Nursing School

    • 1027 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Nursing is a profession, so being a student; I can learn to socialize in to professional practice. This learning will help me to develop myself to the professionalism of nursing. I will develop the characteristics of autonomous and accountable of my practice. Not only that, I will be committed to my work and profession. Being a member of a committee responsible for deciding which nursing research projects to provide fund for, I believe, who are the participants in the research have high priority.…

    • 1027 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Nursing Towards 2020

    • 1419 Words
    • 6 Pages

    80). Currently there are more nurses work in hospital settings than community. Future of nursing insists to adopt upstream approach rather than downstream approach. Currently there is crisis in community nursing and CHNs in this study took the concept further and clearly declared that the health care system needed not only to be restructured but to shift to primary “health” care with more equitable distribution of resources across the continuum to support individuals, families, and communities to have better control over their health It is important for nurses to explore more about issues that Canadian community health nursing is facing and to develop strategies and recommendations that will favour the improvement in health care system to maximize its effectiveness and efficiency. Pg 1048.…

    • 1419 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Great Essays

    As a Nurse there are several ways to address social determinants of health and contribute to the mission of the NURSE Corps Scholarship, which is; “…to improve health and achieve health equality through access to quality service, a skilled health workforce and innovative programs”. My contribution to this mission will be directly through a high level of patient care and indirectly by supporting organizations or coalitions that not only provide care to the medically underserved, but also, support policies which support underserved communities. The dedication of my time in a community with a critical shortage of nurses, as well as, focusing on care for those who are underserved is my primary contribution to the Nurse Corps mission. Patient care…

    • 771 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Nursing Practice Essay

    • 864 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Nursing practice can be achieved by a nurse achieving an ADN degree or a BSN degree as evidenced by the ability to pass the NCLEX and be able to perform the required skills of a nurse. Yet, the nursing profession has been wanting RNs for the past 4 decades to have baccalaureate-degrees and it continues to do research to justify the cost of educating the nursing population to have higher degrees which is believed to be beneficial to patient care. The high demand for nurses after World War II and the funding for hospitals throughout the country opened a demand for more nurses. Motivated by this increase in demand and the lack of supply, the inception of the ADN program at the community college level was proposed by Dr. Mildred Montag.…

    • 864 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    My current nursing path is leading me down community nursing therefore the research article gave me an insight on areas to focus to assist my patients to remain in the homes. As a student nurse, I found the OASIS assessment difficult to understand and I can see where true compliance may be difficult. Also, the documentation is only as good as those doing the assessment. I would not think that any professional would assess a client as at risk for fall and then note that they did not do anything to combat this risk. With many factors, both positive and negative, contributing to the outcome of care in the home setting, I can see where it is hard to create a model of care that works for everyone, but assessment of those with are at increased risk for poor outcomes, is one step towards reducing the readmission rate for those in the high risk age group of 65 and over.…

    • 707 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    NUR 495 Reflections Writing a reflection on a completed course, a recent commitment, or just a note written at the end of the day, leads us to awareness and helps us to think carefully about our own experiences and actions. These reflections are as unique as those who create them. NUR 495, “Public and Global Health in Nursing”, has provided numerous topics and activities for reflection and practice integration, a sampling of which are discussed here. As a nurse in my current practice (I am a Level II NICU nurse), two topics caught my interest in this class.…

    • 617 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Nurses play an essential role in the healthcare business, providing care to patients and filling leadership roles at various hospitals, health systems and other organizations. According to the world health organization (WHO) nursing is defined as an autonomous and collaborative care of individuals of all ages, families, groups and communities, sick or well and in all settings. It includes the promotion of health, the prevention of illness, and the care of the ill, disabled and dying people. However, it is a tough profession that requires a lot of dedication and commitment however there are many challenges that nurses’ face today. The two problems that really stand out to me as a nursing student are the shortage of staff and the daily hazards that our job exposes us to on a daily basis.…

    • 1674 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    A current major healthcare problem in the United States is the lethal combination of medical error and patient neglect. Medical mistakes are the third leading cause of death nationwide and are responsible for over 400,000 deaths annually. A major contributor to these errors is understaffing. A shortage of hospital workers, nurses in particular, can be detrimental to patient care. Patients are dependent upon being treated in a timely fashion, along with the absolute best care possible.…

    • 359 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Essay On Nursing Theory

    • 2000 Words
    • 8 Pages

    NURSING THEORY 2 NURSING THEORY 3 Nursing Theory Ashlee Seek South University Running head: NURSING THEORY 1 Nursing Theory Nursing Autobiography My background in nursing includes an acute care hospital setting and a physician?s office in which we cared for patients with both acute and chronic illnesses.…

    • 2000 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Not only should health promotion be implemented by the health care provider, but it is crucial that public policies acknowledge the way in which health is affected by education, housing, industry, social welfare, and environmental planning (McMurray & Clendon, 2015). Agency and community nurses must also approach health care with a holistic approach, especially when there is awareness that community members lack basic necessities, knowledge and experience (Bailie, McDonald, Stevens, Guthridge & Brewster, 2011). The nurse treats patients by not only providing general health care methods, but also encouraging lifestyle adjustments to enable recovery and prevention (Yi-erh, Sendall, Fleming & Lidstone, 2013). In order for the determinants of health to improve, certain community resources and facilities are…

    • 1591 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Great Essays

    This narrative is a reflection on my development as a health care professional. I will ponder on the start of my mental health nursing programme, my fears and feelings on commencing my training. I will reflect on the skills I had when I began my study, the skills I have learnt since I started training and the skills I will need to learn to develop as a capable healthcare professional. I will include an action plan on how I should be able to acquire the skills I need to improve my learning experience and that are essential to my becoming a competent mental health Nurse. When I was offered admission to study mental health nursing I was overjoyed and at the same time nervous.…

    • 1269 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Community Health Philosophy Bhumika Chaudhari Nebraska Wesleyan University Sep 29 2015 The concept of community health nurse is the provision of nursing care for collective people, bound in relationships that are called families, other groups, aggregates, and communities (Holzemer and Klainberg, 2014). Proving nursing care to the clients in community involves additional responsibility of caring for the client as a nurse in community setting. Nurse has that caring nature that she has to apply in community by helping the one in need. Community health nurse has the opportunity and responsibility to care for the community as a whole.…

    • 667 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Decent Essays