Goals and Objectives
A nurse must consider community practice as an important tool for building the necessary experience. Therefore, the practice in question must be viewed as an opportunity for developing a better understanding of how to meet the unique needs of the target population. A set of goals listed below will help shed light on the specifics of addressing the needs of a particular community.
- Exploring the characteristics of the target population’s culture, its specifics, and the factors that pose a threat to the identified community;
- Determining the strategies for building a dialogue with the target population;
- Exploring the current levels of awareness among the identified community members and creating approaches for enhancing them.
Experience Placement: Schedule
- Monday: learning about the existing approach toward patient placement and management of their needs;
- Tuesday: carrying out surveys and interviews among the community members to gather the information about the specifics of their culture, main issues concerning communication with nurses, etc.;
- Wednesday: identifying the nursing theories and frameworks that will help improve the well-being of the community members, primarily, by enhancing the communication process between a nurse and the community and raising awareness rates;
- Thursday: Introducing the said theories and testing their efficacy by reconsidering the current communication framework and incorporating the latest IT tools as the means of keeping the communication process between nurses and the community members consistent;
- Friday: evaluating the outcomes of the adopted framework;
- Saturday: considering the assessment results and defining the further ways of assisting the community.
Placement Items and Issues
No major placement issues were identified in the course of the practice. Although some of the community members fell under the category of vulnerable ones, they were very eager to acquire relevant knowledge and skills. One must mention, though, that the process of placing patients in a specific unit often implied a dilemma as far as the choice of the level of care was concerned. Since most patients showed a very good understanding of their needs, they were initially placed under routine home care. However, further problems in the management of their needs often pointed to the necessity to provide inpatient services to the identified community members. Thus, a greater focus was placed on the inpatient care processes (Stanhope & Lancaster, 2014).
Furthermore, the development of nosocomial infections during the stay in the hospital could be defined as a threat. Because of the issues with personal hygiene, some of the inpatients were exposed to the danger of developing nosocomial infections. Nevertheless, the problem was addressed with the help of antibiotics and patient education provided by nurses.
This Week’s Objective: Description
As stressed above, learning more about the characteristics of the community and its members could be defined as the primary objective of the week. It seems that the goal has been attained, and the primary needs of the patients were identified in the course of observations. Furthermore, the avenues for managing the specified issues have been designed. Therefore, the practice can be considered successful. The results of the practice can also become the foundation for developing a comprehensive approach toward meeting the needs of the target population successfully and reducing the risks to which they are exposed on a regular basis (Maurer & Smith, 2014). The specified changes will allow improving patient outcomes in the community considerably.
References
Maurer, F. A., & Smith, C. M. (2014). Community/public health nursing practice: Health for families and populations. New York, NY: Elsevier Health Sciences.
Stanhope, M., & Lancaster, J. (2014). Foundations of nursing in the community: Community-oriented practice. New York, NY: Elsevier Health Sciences.