Every job in healthcare settings requires much preparation and responsibility. However, public health nursing is more difficult than other nursing jobs because it involves a variety of duties that the employee has to perform within a short period of time. Public health nurses do not look after only one patient or do only one kind of job. Rather, they cope with different tasks that require a high level of responsibility, good communication skills, and excellent time management.
Camden Coalition of Healthcare Providers has established a goal to transform the system of health care so as to provide the “whole-person” care for each patient (“Better health care,” 2017). While the responsibilities of healthcare organizations to respond to the traditional societal issues are broadly discussed and analyzed in scholarly literature, there are some problems that have not been covered yet. The following three societal issues are not traditionally within the scope of health care: religious beliefs, the level of education, and isolation problems. Community health is a crucial aspect of the healthcare system (Allender, Rector, & Warner, 2014). However, even in spite of its inclusion of a large number of problems, it does not cover all healthcare issues that impact patients’ attitudes and response to treatment.
The first societal issue not included in the traditional scope of health care is people’s religious beliefs. In order to reach successful outcomes, healthcare organizations should not neglect this factor. Different people have different beliefs, and it is necessary for healthcare providers to respect them. The responsibility of healthcare organizations is to ask people in the public health sector about their preferences and take into consideration the choice of each individual.
The second issue is the patients’ level of education. Frequently, public health nurses cannot find an approach to their patients because the latter lack understanding of what is required of them or what treatment the provider has suggested. In order to reach successful outcomes, it is necessary to recognize that not all patients have a sufficient level of education. As a result, some of them may not speak English well. To minimize the adverse outcomes of poor education of the patients, healthcare providers need to make sure whether their directions are clear and understood. If patients do not demonstrate a sufficient level of comprehension, public health workers should explain the basic terms, concepts, and methods to them.
The third societal issue that is frequently underestimated by healthcare organizations is the problem of isolation experienced by the patients. Most frequently, this issue concerns the elderly patients who live alone and have no one to take care of them. These people are vulnerable and usually unwilling to share their feelings. The responsibility of a healthcare organization in such case is to pay particular attention to elderly patients living alone. Successful outcomes will be reached when a public health nurse finds a way to minimize the negative impact of isolation in elderly patients.
Along with the multitude of problems to which the healthcare system pays much attention, there are issues that are sometimes neglected by public health nurses. For an organization to reach the most successful outcomes, it is crucial to focus on such problems as religious beliefs, the level of education, and loneliness experienced by patients. The responsibility of any public healthcare facility is to provide patients with the highest quality of care with the help of personalized approaches.
References
Allender, J. A., Rector, C., & Warner, K. D. (2014). Community and public health nursing: Promoting the public’s health (8th ed.). Philadelphia, PA: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.
Better health care at lower cost in Camden, NJ. (2017). Web.