The community surrounding my school of nursing is mostly represented by average middle-class people. In nursing, the environment can be defined as public places such as homes, schools, and workplaces, or the environment can be global considering air, water, soil, and food (Stanhope & Lancaster, 2016). The most common environmental conditions that affect middle-class people are related either to their homes or their workplaces and these places can be used to collect data for the observations.
The primary environmental condition that nurses can assess is presented in people’s homes. The home’s environmental condition depends on multiple factors. Those factors include whether or not people use pesticides, whether the heating system produces unhealthy levels of carbon monoxide, or if there are any problems with the painting of the house (Stanhope & Lancaster, 2016). For example, if there are problems with lead-based paint at home, this can be poisonous. In such a situation, a housing inspector or sanitarian should be invited to do the expertise and take action to prevent possible health problems (Stanhope & Lancaster, 2016). Nurses have to be able to detect whether people have any unhealthy symptoms that can be caused by the home environment and how to act in case of detecting something.
The next environmental condition that most people can be affected by can be assessed at their workplaces. The workplace’s environmental condition may be complicated since most people do not have complete control over it. Assessing environmental conditions at a workplace, nurses should consider whether there is exposure to radiation or any chemicals, whether people wear protective equipment, or have similar health problems (Stanhope & Lancaster, 2016). For example, there is a “hierarchy control” for workplace exposures to potentially hazardous chemicals (Stanhope & Lancaster, 2016, p. 232). If a nurse sees any indications of a health threat, such as exposure time exceeding a typical work shift or the exposure level exceeding its maximum, there has to be an action plan to preserve health.
Reference
Stanhope, M. & Lancaster, J. (2016). Public health nursing: Population-centered health care in the community (9th ed.). Elsevier Mosby.