Develop a hypothetical health promotion plan, 3-4 pages in length, addressing a specific health concern for an individual or a group living in the community that you identified from the topic list provided.
Historically, nurses have made significant contributions to community and public health with regard to health promotion, disease prevention, and environmental and public safety. They have also been instrumental in shaping public health policy. Today, community and public health nurses have a key role in identifying and developing plans of care to address local, national, and international health issues. The goal of community and public health nursing is to optimize the health of individuals and families, taking into consideration cultural, racial, ethnic groups, communities, and populations. Caring for a population involves identifying the factors that place the population’s health at risk and developing specific interventions to address those factors. The community/public health nurse uses epidemiology as a tool to customize disease prevention and health promotion strategies disseminated to a specific population. Epidemiology is the branch of medicine that investigates causes of various diseases in a specific population (CDC, 2012; Healthy People 2030, n.d.).
As an advocate and educator, the community/public health nurse is instrumental in providing individuals, groups, and aggregates with the tools that are essential for health promotion and disease prevention. There is a connection between one’s quality of life and their health literacy. Health literacy is related to the knowledge, comprehension, and understanding of one’s condition along with the ability to find resources that will treat, prevent, maintain, or cure their condition. Health literacy is impacted by the individual’s learning style, reading level, and the ability understand and retain the information being provided. The individual’s technology aptitude and proficiency in navigating available resources is an essential component to making informed decisions and to the teaching learning process (CDC, 2012; Healthy People 2030, n.d.).
It is essential to develop trust and rapport with community members to accurately identify health needs and help them adopt health promotion, health maintenance, and disease prevention strategies. Cultural, socio-economical, and educational biases need to be taken into consideration when communicating and developing an individualized treatment and educational plan. Social, economic, cultural, and lifestyle behaviors can have an impact on an individual’s health and the health of a community. These behaviors may pose health risks, which may be mitigated through lifestyle/behaviorally-based education. The environment, housing conditions, employment factors, diet, cultural beliefs, and family/support system structure play a role in a person’s levels of risk and resulting health. Assessment, evaluation, and inclusion of these factors provide a basis for the development of an individualized plan. The health professional may use a genogram or sociogram in this process.
What is a genogram? A genogram, similar to a family tree, is used to gather detailed information about the quality of relationships and interactions between family members over generations as opposed to lineage. Gender, family relationships, emotional relationships, lifespan, and genetic predisposition to certain health conditions are components of a genogram. A genogram, for instance, may identify a pattern of martial issues perhaps rooted in anger or explain why a person has green eyes.
What is a sociogram? A sociogram helps the health professional to develop a greater understanding of these factors by seeing inter-relationships, social links between people or other entities, as well as patterns to identify vulnerable populations and the flow of information within the community.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2012). Lesson 1: Introduction to epidemiology. In Principles of Epidemiology in Public Health Practice (3rd ed.). https://www.cdc.gov/csels/dsepd/ss1978/lesson1/section1.html
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. (n.d.). Healthy People 2030. https://health.gov/healthypeople
By successfully completing this assessment, you will demonstrate your proficiency in the following course competencies and assessment criteria:
Note: Assessment 1 must be completed first before you are able to submit Assessment 4.
The first step in any effective project or clinical patient encounter is planning. This assessment provides an opportunity for you to plan a hypothetical clinical learning experience focused on health promotion associated with a specific community health concern. Such a plan defines the critical elements of who, what, when, where, and why that establish the foundation for an effective clinical learning experience for the participants. Completing this assessment will strengthen your understanding of how to plan and negotiate individual or group participation. This assessment is the foundation for the implementation of your health promotion educational plan (Assessment 4).
You will need to satisfactorily pass Assessment 1 (Health Promotion Plan) before working on your last assessment (Assessment 4).
To prepare for the assessment, consider various health concerns that you would like to be the focus of your plan from the topic list provided, the populations potentially affected by that concern, and hypothetical individuals or groups living in the community. Then, investigate your chosen concern and best practices for health improvement, based on supporting evidence.
As you begin to prepare this assessment, you are encouraged to complete the Vila Health: Effective Interpersonal Communications activity. The information gained from completing this activity will help you succeed with the assessment. Completing activities is also a way to demonstrate engagement.
For this assessment, you will propose a hypothetical health promotion plan addressing a particular health concern affecting a fictitious individual or group living in the community. The hypothetical individual or group of your choice must be living in the community; not in a hospital, assistant living, nursing home, or other facility. You may choose any health issues from the list provided in the instructions.
In the Assessment 4, you will simulate a face-to-face presentation of this plan to the individual or group that you have identified.
Please choose one of the topics below:
In addition, you are encouraged to:
Note: Remember that you can submit all, or a portion of, your draft assessment to Smarthinking Tutoring for feedback before you submit the final version for this assessment. If you plan on using this free service, be mindful of the turnaround time of 24–48 hours for receiving feedback.
Your health promotion plan should be 3–4 pages in length.
Support your health promotion plan with peer-reviewed articles, course study resources, and Healthy People 2030 resources. Cite at least three credible sources published within the past five years, using APA format.
The requirements outlined below correspond to the grading criteria in the scoring guide, so be sure to address each point. Read the performance-level descriptions for each criterion to see how your work will be assessed.
Before submitting your assessment for grading, proofread it to minimize errors that could distract readers and make it difficult for them to focus on the substance of your plan.