Population-Based Nursing: Protecting & Promoting Health - Essay Sample

Population-based nursing programs is the incorporation of nursing and public health practices applied to protect and promote the health of the population. It integrates all the primary elements of professional, clinical nursing with community practice and public health. `The central role of population-based nurses is to provide treatment to patients within society (Verma et al., 2015). Consequently, the nurses offer education to community members with a significant concern being on ways to maintain their health to minimize the occurrence of ailments and deaths. The information is shared through educational programs, hand-out flyers, and posters, which enlighten on strategies to lead a healthy lifestyle. Additionally, the population-based nurses dispense medication, administer immunization, and conduct health screening to help detect diseases at an early stage and, thus, new medications (Carnes, 2019). It is typical for community health nurses to distribute health-related items such as pregnancy tests and condoms to minimize the rate of unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases such as HV/AIDS.

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Metro Public Health Department Nashville is one of the agencies that oversight population health in Tennessee county. It has a total of 1230 employees that collaboratively work to fulfil the agency mission of enhancing the health of all community members through the provision of treatment services ("Nashville > Health Department,” 2020). Nonetheless, the department objective a healthy lifestyle is observed through its educational health-based programs, which enlighten the community on various health issues such as teen pregnancy, poor nutrition, substance abuse, obesity, smoking, and infectious and sexually transmitted diseases (Carnes, 2019). There are different programs offered by Metro Public Health Department Nashville, but the main channels include advocating safe sexual practice and minimizing smoking among the young adults ("Nashville > Health Department,” 2020). The department asserts that an increased in sexually transmitted diseases such as HIV/ AIDS and drug use has become prevalent in the community and thus established programs to minimize the health-related challenges experienced by the young generation.

The programs established by the Metro Public Health Department Nashville have been influential in minimizing the increase in substance use and HIV cases among the young population in Nashville, Tennessee. The has been a decrease in inhalant use among young population between 17-24 years from 23% to 14% ("Nashville > Health Department,” 2020). It is a good indication that the organization's programs have improved helped minimize the health impact that substance abuse has on the young population.

Additionally, the number of reported HIV/ AIDS cases have reduced from 19% to 11% among the young population in Nashville ("Nashville > Health Department,” 2020). This is after the Metro Public Health Department Nashville introduced safe-sex practices such as the use of condoms and contraceptives that have been widely accepted by the young population ("Nashville > Health Department,” 2020). The risk data indicates that the young population have reduced chances of contracting sexually transmitted diseases from 18%- 10% and from 21%-14% in the case of respiratory health issues such as lung cancer ("Nashville > Health Department,” 2020). The statistics, as mentioned earlier, depict that Metro Public Health Department Nashville is determined to improve the well-being of the young population and the Nashville society at large ("Nashville > Health Department,” 2020). Henceforth, the programs established by the Metro Public Health Department have not only enhanced the health of the young population, but it has made the youth positively redefine their life and career objectives.

References

Carnes, S. (2019). Libraries and Community Health: Developing Programs that Support Your Community’s Health Needs. Journal of Hospital Librarianship, 19(3), 248-257. Doi: 10.1080/15323269.2019.1628567

Nashville > Health Department. Nashville.gov. (2020). Retrieved from https://www.nashville.gov/Health-Department.aspx.

Verma, M., Sarfaty, M., Brooks, D., & Wender, R. (2015). Population-based programs in the United States. CA: A Health Journal for Clinicians, 65(6), 496-510. https://Doi.org/10.3322/caac.21295