Community Health Paper, Poster, and Presentation
NURS 473 – Community Health Nursing
Purpose of Assignment:
The purpose of this assignment is to involve students in the comprehensive community needs assessment. Students will develop/utilize tools to identify perceived factors (both negative and positive) that impinge on the population’s health. This information will then be used to develop and implement strategies for health promotion.
Student Approach to Assignment:
In order to complete my community health criteria, I used several formats including oral presentation, written paper, and research poster. Within these various media I explore the role of the Ambulatory Care Clinic (ACC), a free and reduced healthcare facility, in the Norfolk area. I also investigate ways to improve outreach to the intended community and increase appointment attendance and adherence within the Interprofessional Clinic (IPC), a student-run interdisciplinary clinic inside the ACC.
Rationale for Inclusion of this Assignment in the Student Portfolio:
The community health assignments show my commitment to providing healthcare for anyone that needs access, as well as a drive to increase the usage and productivity of available services. Within the body of paper I satisfy the following Old Dominion School of Nursing End-of-Program-Outcomes in accordance with their accrediting body:
Critical Thinking
Uses decision-making skills in making clinical or professional judgments
Example: At the IPC all patient appointments are student-run. The nursing student would act as the patient navigator and obtain all necessary information as well as the patient’s goals for the visit. After working together to develop these goals, the nursing student would rank the top three priorities in care for the patients and report them to the interdisciplinary team for delegation.
Evaluates nursing care outcomes through the acquisition of data and the questioning of inconsistencies
Example: Follow-up appointments were made for more complex patients, at these appointments, the patient would be placed with the same nursing student if possible, so we could see the progress made from the previous visit. Together, the patient and I would explore the reasons suggested interventions worked or did not work, and use those to develop new tools. Sometimes, this was a s simple as making a referral closer to the area of the patient’s home, other times there were more complex issues, like housing instability, that needed to be solved in order for the patient to focus on health needs.
Engages in creative problem solving
Example: To provide care to this patient population we had to use several other community groups. This frequently involved calling several places and getting the patient set up with multiple appointments, to ease this patient burden we would try to schedule all of these in a central area on a single day to eliminate missed days of work or the need to find reliable transportation on multiple occasions.
Nursing Practice
Demonstrates an awareness of complementary modalities and their usefulness in promoting health
Example: The patients seen at the ACC and IPC are all uninsured or underinsured; this makes referrals to services like physical therapy difficult and costly. With the help of the Physical Therapy students, the nursing student could recommend exercise changes, like yoga, to increase joint flexibility and ease lower back pain.
Communication
Adapts communication methods to patients with special needs
Example: The low-income nature of the ACC and IPC contributes to a low literacy level. One of my patients at a first-grade reading level was given a package of exercise instructions by physical therapy, that included no photos. To aid this person in adhering to their regimen I googled and found photos of the described exercises so they could more easily comply.
Expresses oneself and communicates effectively with diverse groups and disciplines using a variety of media.
Example: The ACC has a waiting room equipped with televisions that were used to display information about the IPC to patients so they were able to self-refer. Providers at the ACC were provided a brochure and in-service regarding the benefits of the IPC and the positive impact if can have on patients. When making their appointments for the IPC, patients were asked how they heard about the clinic to track the usefulness of waiting room marketing.
Teaching
Provides relevant and sensitive health education information and counseling to patients, and families, in a variety of situations and settings
Example: In my experience with the IPC, I not only provided health education to patients during their appointments, but we also partnered with the Food Bank of South Eastern Virginia to offer Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Applications to those that were not IPC patients. This allowed us to pass out food cards and nutrition information that we gained from other community health groups to a population not directly related to the IPC.
Research
Shares research findings with colleagues
Example: As the capstone activity in Community Health, my group and I presented our research poster at a community health day presented by ODU College of Nursing which we invited our community partners to. We were able to present our research findings to our professors, peers, and community partners.
Leadership
Assumes a leadership role within one’s scope of practice as a designer, manager, and coordinator of health care to meet the special needs of populations
Example: As the nursing student at the IPC, I acted as the patient navigator and was responsible for establishing priority of problems, informing the correct discipline, and working with them to solve the patients problem at the student level.
Initiates community partnerships to establish health promotion goals and implements strategies to meet those goals
Example: During our time at the ACC, we established a community partnership with the Food Bank of South Eastern Virginia. Or goal was to reach a population that would be eligible for SNAP benefits but may not be enrolled. In order to reach as many people as possible, we established rotating times at the clinic in order to service patients that were not seen at the IPC.
Organizes, manages, and evaluates the development of strategies to promote healthy communities
Example: In order to promote the health of our patients and increase productivity of the IPC, ODU School of Nursing was awarded a grant that was used to purchase gift cards to a local grocery store that would be distributed to patients when they arrived to their scheduled appointment. After the implementation of the gift card incentive, coupled with provider and patient education about the IPC, we saw a three-fold increase in patient attendance and appointment adherence.