1 postsRe: Topic 2 DQ 2

Climate change is something we have heard about for years. One thing I did not realize is how much it affects our global health. The World Health Organization states that the earth temperature has increased 0.85 degrees censuses, which is 33.5 degrees Fahrenheit, over the last 130 years. “Over the last 50 years, human activities – particularly the burning of fossil fuels – have released sufficient quantities of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases to trap additional heat in the lower atmosphere and affect the global climate” (World Health Organization, 2018). With the rising temperatures our ice glaciers continue to melt causing rising in sea levels which in result are causing increasing in precipitation and extreme weather conditions. “Climate change affects social and environmental determinants of health – clean air, safe drinking water, sufficient food and secure shelter” (World Health Organization, 2018).

Higher temperatures are causing increased levels of ozone and other pollutants in the air and are resulting in higher incidence in respiratory and cardiovascular disease. It is also causing increased natural disasters which are leading to increased deaths due to homes, medical facilities, and other essential facilities being destroyed. Another affect of climate change is variable rainfall which can cause drought and higher incidence of floods which contaminate drinking water. “Climatic conditions strongly affect water-borne diseases and diseases transmitted through insects, snails or other cold blooded animals” (World Health Organization, 2018). According to the World Health Organization, Malaria is strongly related to climate causing 400,000 deaths per year.

The World Health Organization continues to work on ways to prepare its communities to protect against climate change. They also state, “Many policies and individual choices have the potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and produce major health co-benefits. For example, cleaner energy systems, and promoting the safe use of public transportation and active movement – such as cycling or walking as alternatives to using private vehicles – could reduce carbon emissions, and cut the burden of household air pollution, which causes some 4.3 million deaths per year, and ambient air pollution, which causes about 3 million deaths every year” (World Health Organization, 2018). What we can do to help is to talk to our patients about how climate change effects their health and how they can help and try to protect themselves, use more economical friendly equipment and limit medical waste to decrease pollution and teach patients and families how to prepare and protect themselves from natural disasters

 

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 Social determinants of health refer to social and economic factors that specific individuals have to deal with because of birth, status, gender, culture, race, income status, employment, physical surroundings and access to health services (Government of Canada – modified 2019).These determinants influence the behavioural and risk factors of individuals within specific geographical neighbourhoods.

     Low income and culture are two of the many risk factors for diseases. Because of the lack of proper education, there is lack of knowledge that is essential to promote and prevent diseases and restore health. Culture plays a role because of traditions, customs and beliefs, the family may not think, act or feel the same way about their overall health.

    The communicable disease chain model is a means of addressing the different transmissions that happens when the agent leaves it host (reservoir – human or animal or the environment such as mosquitos in stagnant water, poor air quality) through a portal exit and enters via transmission through a portal entry to infect a susceptible host. “Th emode of transmission is th emeans of the agent’s travel from the portal of exit to the host” (Green, 2018). This sequence is usually referred to as a chain of infection. If there is a break in the chain of infection, then it is aborted.  For a community that is already at risk because of social determinants of health it is important that diseases are addressed promptly to avoid the widespread infection. For example, in a nursing home where there are less workers and many patients, a staphylococcus bacterium, such as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) can be passed easily via a source to a susceptible host. In order to avoid this transmission, proper handwashing is necessary before and after patient care to abort or prevent this chain of infection.

References

 

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“Social determinants of health are conditions in the environments in which people are born, live, learn, work, play, worship, and age that affect a wide range of health, functioning, and quality-of-life outcomes and risks (Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, 2019)”. The types of conditions may be in social, economic, and physical environment. Social determinants examples are; availability of resources to meet daily needs, educational and job opportunities and access, health care services access, patient safety, social support, social norms, exposure to crime, socioeconomic conditions, residential segregation, literacy or language, mass media access, and culture. The physical determinants examples are; green space or natural environment, built environment, recreational, work sites, schools, exposure to toxic substance, physical barriers, and aesthetic elements. Settings could be pertaining to school, church, workplace, and neighborhood, any type of setting that can be considered their “place”. Healthy People 2020 established five key areas of social determinants; economic stability, education, social and community context, health and health care, neighborhood and build environment. “

“Social determinants of health are economic and social conditions that influence the health of people and communities (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2014)”. The social determinants of health contribute to the development of disease. The factors may be social in nature, biological, psychosocial, behavioral, and socioeconomic. For example, genes and biology such as sex and age, health behaviors such as EtOH abuse, social environment – discrimination, income, physical environment; where a person lives and type of condition, and health services – access to health care or not having insurance. “Each person’s health is affected by the person’s behavior, which, in turn, is associated with his or her social or economic status (e.g., income, education, and marital status) and the corresponding environmental conditions (e.g., the proportion of people in a neighborhood who live below the federal poverty level [FPL] or who do not have a high school education) (Ruiguang Song, 2011)”.

The fundamental idea of what the communicable disease chain model represents is composed of three elements; infectious agent, host and environment. The infectious agent must be present for the disease to occur or developed. Examples of infectious agents are bacteria, viruses, and parasites. The host can be any susceptible organism. Examples of hosts are plants, animals, and humans. The environment are all other possible factors that promote or prohibit the disease transmission.

Examples of steps a nurse may take to break the link within communicable disease chain is by simply disrupting or interrupting the chain at any link. Examples are; correctly washing hands often, vaccinations, staying at home when ill, abiding by regulations for standard and contact isolation, implementing personal protective equipment appropriately, cleaning and disinfecting the area, sterilizing medical equipment, following safe practices, utilizing antibiotics appropriately in order to prevent antibiotic resistance.

 

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1 postsRe: Topic 2 DQ 2

Global health issues are those that have significant impact on the health of the international communities which may be either a preventable or treatable infectious disease or chronic conditions (Maurer & Smith, 2013, p.118).Health disparities occur among countries from developed to underdeveloped countries wherein the former would usually have more resources and economic stability. The standard of health care being provided to citizens of higher-income countries are higher than those of the middle-income and lower-income countries (Maurer & Smith, 2013, p.114).

One of the major health problems is due to malnutrition. It is because of many reasons such as poverty, illiteracy, lack of awareness about nutritional facts, commercialization of food industry, improper agricultural Technics to grow food products, formation of bad eating habits, etc. To maintain a healthy community, it is important to coordinate many resources.

Poverty is one of the main problems for malnutrition in developing nations. But as a developed country improper commercialization in food industry is the major cause of unbalanced nourishment. As a human nature, taste is the main fact of developing eating habit. Modern industrialists manufacture food products focusing on the sales opportunity. This made them give less value of nutritional facts and supplemented with taste. The introduction of tasty food with less nutritional value attracted even those people in developed countries and started a tendency in the formation of bad eating habits. Lack of awareness and misleading advertisements promoted the sales and thus more and more people developed eating habits with unhealthy food.

Modern food industry introduced newer technologies to grow crops faster both in live stocks and agriculture. The uncontrolled use of steroids and pesticides developed a major role in malnutrition. Those food products manufactured in such adverse conditions drained the nutritional facts and the percentage of hazardous products in food became dominant so that the body system is no longer be able to absorb the nutrition from such food products.

Another major fact in malnutrition is the economy. As people are not able to meet their daily needs due to inflation, many were looking for cheaper products for the use in their daily life. Such instances developed low quality food consuming habit disregarding the adverse aspects such as health problems.

The awareness of food nutritional facts and availability of economically affordable quality food in low income communities are one of the best remedies for the problem.

Reference

Maurer, F. & Smith, C. (2013). Community public health nursing practice. Fifth edition. pp. 114-118, 491. St. Louis, MO: Elsevier.

In-Iw, S., Saetae, T., & Manaboriboon, B. (2012). The Effectiveness of School-Based Nutritional Education Program among Obese Adolescents: A Randomized Controlled Study. International Journal of Pediatrics, 1-5. doi:10.1155/2012/608920

 

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4 postsRe: Topic 3 DQ 1

A vulnerable population is a group of people who need special considerations in regard to their health and overall welfare (Falkner, 2018).Vulnerable populations are individuals who are not able to advocate for themselves due to physical, cognitive or mental disability, emotionally unstable people, children and incarcerated individuals.These populations usually have several social determinants of health(SDOH) that contribute to their vulnerability.These SDOH can include poverty, socioeconomic status, race and ethnicity, sexual orientation and no insurance or the underinsured.

 In the United States there are many vulnerable populations.One group that gets a significant amount of media coverage is the lesbian/gay/bisexual/transgender/questioning (LGBTQ) population.The inequality and hardship this group often encounters within the medical community and the higher instance of medical conditions such as Hepatitis B, HIV and AIDS is what makes this population considered vulnerable (Falkner, 2018).In the US, it is estimated that 10 million adults identify as LGBTQ (American Nurses Association [ANA], 2018).Many individuals within the population have reported prejudice from medical providers, leading to reluctance to seek care or delay in treatment due to the bias experienced.The stigma in society, discrimination and failure to recognize the unique civil and human rights deters individual self-determination and access to care which causes negative health outcomes and overall increase in morbidity and mortality (ANA, 2018).All nurses, not just CHN need to understand their own preconceptions and bias when caring for this vulnerable population.Ethically, nurses have a responsibility to provide safe, competent care to all individuals regardless of age, sex, sexual preference, race, ethnicity or socioeconomic status.

 

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