Introduction
Primary prevention is an approach to managing the population’s health by engaging in initiatives that help prevent the onset of a disease before it develops. The Sentinel Town residents have an issue with all three aspects of healthcare access because their economic condition and low income do not allow them to access all the services they need. Moreover, this affects the overall health of the town since the clinic cannot maintain its work on the weekends, and there is no pharmacy. Hence, the timeliness is impaired as well, because in some cases, the citizens have to drive to a city hospital or wait for an ambulance for 30 minutes.
The community health nursing diagnostic statement is the issue of access to healthcare due to the economic disparities of Sentinel Town’s citizens. One of the strategies for addressing this, outlined in the Healthy People 2020 strategy is the promotion of telehealth services, which can address all three aspects of quality healthcare (“Access to health services,” n.d.). Telehealth is a provision of services through digital communication means, which allows medical professionals to consult patients without seeing them face-to-face. While this would not address all the issues in this community, it would help promote health and provide timely care for people who otherwise would be unable to afford these services or would have to spend time to get to the nearest city. This paper presents a community health needs assessment, a windshield survey of Sentinel Town, community resources, and primary prevention methods.
Replacement Field Experience Sentinel Town Project Submission
Community Assessment
A community health assessment was completed by touring Sentinel Town and collecting information about the area and community living here. The geographical area of Sentinel Town is a rural community. The population is estimated at 609, and the majority of the population, or 24% are of age between 24 and 44 years old. The average household income is $27,024 per year, and notably, 73 citizens, or 17 families, live below the income poverty level, which is 12% of the population (“Sentinel demographics,” n.d.). No data regarding homelessness or unemployment was retrieved, suggesting that these rates are low at Sentinel Town.
The further population age breakdown is the following – 3.6% are under the age of 5, 18.3% are between 5 and 18, 7.5% are aged 18 to 24, and 23.2% are between the ages of 45 and 65, 21.8% between the ages of 65-84 and 1.5% is attributed to people aged 85 and more. Regarding race breakdown, Sentinel Town is predominantly white – 93.3%, following Hispanic or Latino individuals – 7.6%, African Americans – 0.5%, and American Indians – 0.3%. The average household income is $27,024 per year, and notably, 73 citizens, or 17 families, live below the income poverty level, which is 12% of the population (“Sentinel demographics,” n.d.). No data regarding homelessness or unemployment was retrieved, suggesting that these rates are low at Sentinel Town.
Environmental Hazards
Dulce Lopez reports that the air is not polluted, and the town has access to clean water, which eliminates a significant health concern. Next, Jack Carter, one of the citizens, informed that there are several problems in the town “from muddy roads to potholes, to poor lightning and no sidewalks” (“Jack Carter,” n.d.). Because of this, there were burglaries, and the town has a lack of EMT and fireman specialists. According to the Sheriff’s Office report, there were four robberies and seven aggravated assault cases last year (“Sheriff’s office,” n.d.). One issue is that the ambulance response time is approximately 30 minutes (“Janet Mills,” n.d.).
Disaster Assessment
The town’s Sheriff reported that the community does not have a readily available disaster response plan. Although there are no reports of disasters and Sentiment Town does not appear to be a disaster-prone area, it should be noted that the community lacks EMT and fireman specialists, which is an issue.
Other
The largest contributor to diseases is diabetes, with the most significant number of services attributed to this condition (“Clinic,” n.d.). Additionally, cancer treatments and follow-ups have the most significant number of referrals to a city hospital. Many citizens are concerned with the increasing issue of drug and alcohol abuse, as well as emerging mental health problems (“Janet Mills,” n.d.). Controversial matters discussed in the local sources include cases of child neglect and lack of immunization, especially in the community of immigrants, which is attributed to lack of information. Minor injuries are the largest contributor to emergency department visits. In summary, the quality of life in this community is reduced due to its economic status and inability to develop infrastructure in the town that would promote health and allow for better access to healthcare.
Community and Population Health Assessment Windshield Survey
The windshield survey of Sentimental Town’s community was completed by driving a car to different parts of the town and walking the streets. In total, 12 locations were visited to collect the data. There aren’t many apartment complexes in Sentinel City. Instead, there appears to be a large number of single-family homes, most of which appear to be in satisfactory shape, however, some of them need attendance such as masonry work or a coat of paint. During this journey, no abandoned houses or destructured property was noticed. However, a town has a trailer park where the majority of the population earns approximately $20,000 per year. Additionally, there is a large farm located outside the main town.
There aren’t many community spaces, such as parks, and only one cafe and one grocery shop were noticed. Moreover, there are not many trees on the streets or sidewalks along the roads. The main neighborhood hangouts are the schoolyard and the local church. In terms of transportation, a car is the only option available to the citizens, and a gas station is available since the town has no public transportation, and the roads are unpaved, making it impossible to use bikes or other means. In general, the city lacks community spaces and recreation places that would help promote health through physical activity.
Social Media Campaign
The present initiative for promoting the health of the community is access to healthcare. The topic of primary prevention is connected to access to healthcare, and it is based on the Healthy People 2020 initiative (“Access to health services,” n.d.). As suggested by the health assessment and commentary from Jack Carter, this is a rural town with a limited opportunity for economic growth, which affects the accessibility of healthcare services for its citizens. Some people cannot afford basic things such as food or shelter. Moreover, the local clinic does not work on the weekends, and there is no pharmacy, which are the underlying causes of the health concern. Hence, the health concern is linked to a health inequity or health disparity within the target population because Sentinel Town does not have enough resources or funding to facilitate the adequate provision of healthcare services to all citizens. It seems that Sentinel Town does not have any primary prevention resources.
The community plays a vital role in the assessment of the problem and the facilitation of its resolution. Community resources include the local clinic, and it appears that the local church is an important place for community gatherings, many activities are held there. Since the community does not have other places that could hold recreational activities and support the population’s health, the church and the clinic are the only places for health promotion.
Data about the topic and evidence-based resources on it is the statistics on healthcare access from CDC (2017), which suggests that only 87.6% of citizens have a place where they usually visit to receive healthcare services (para. 2). One of the key initiatives of the Healthy People 2020 campaign is increasing access to healthcare services for different communities. According to the initiative, “comprehensive, quality health care services is important for promoting and maintaining health, preventing and managing the disease, reducing unnecessary disability and premature death, and achieving health equity” (“Access to health services,” n.d., para. 1). Three main components facilitate this – insurance coverage, availability of services, and timely care.
Community Social Media Campaign
The objective of the campaign is to promote the understanding of healthcare’s role as an important factor of one’s life, with the focus on children immunization for the immigrant community, since the healthcare assessment results showcase that this is an issue. Next, the campaign will advocate for the adoption of telehealth as an affordable option for consulting with health professionals.
The first population-based social marketing strategy is the dissemination of information about the immunization of children, its importance, and its impact. It will help this initiative by notifying the immigrant families that they can get access to these resources. This can be done by placing infographics on Facebook, at the clinic, and school and translating information into Spanish. The second population-based social marketing is promotion, which will target access to care services with a focus on telehealth. It would improve the health message by creating a resource for community members where they will be able to read information about preventative care, exercises, diet, and options for telehealth access.
The social media platform that will be used for this campaign is Facebook because it allows creating groups and communities where information such as lengthy texts, infographics, and videos can be posted. Hence, the benefit of this platform in supporting preventative care is the ability to invite community members into one group and encourage discussions and dissemination of useful information – in this case, telehealth and availability of immunization for children. The target population will benefit from this because Sentinel’s citizens rely on one physician and one nurse as their main source of information and cannot discuss any emerging health concerns, which will be possible through Facebook.
Best practices for implementing social media tools for health marketing are using social media and digital resources, multichannel marketing, focusing on the patient’s needs, and employing analytics to further improve the campaign (“Best practice guide – Healthcare marketing,” n.d.). The value-based focus on the healthcare system implies the need to focus on the needs of the patient; in this case, access to healthcare services and credible information is the key problem of the town. Next, the use of digital tools and resources such as social media helps target a wider population with fewer expenditures, and communicate with patients to further assess their needs and concerns. Finally, analytics enabled by the digital resources allow making changes to the campaign based on the engagement levels, allowing to create the most effective message to prevent serious health conditions.
Stakeholders’ Roles
There are two key categories of stakeholders with this campaign – the citizens and Sentinel’s officials and healthcare personnel. The former’s role is in helping share the information about the campaign, engaging in discussions, and using the recommendations that they receive. The latter’s role is in facilitating the process, finding the professionals who will help create content, advertise it, and verify the information. Additionally, this stakeholder group will be responsible for evaluating the outcomes of this campaign.
Potential public and private partnerships include partnering with the local clinic to help add credibility to the campaign. The local health professionals can recommend the Facebook resource to the visitors and be guest-writers for content because they are aware of the problems and health concerns in this town. The town’s sheriff is another partner for the campaign as he is one of the primary decision-makers. Additionally, to help enable better access to care through telehealth, campaign management can partner with a private insurance company that provides telehealth coverage to help disseminate information and offer a discount for the citizens. Other potential private partnerships include marketing and advertising agencies that can help create a compelling message for the campaign’s social media accounts. Hence, public partnerships can enhance the credibility of this campaign while private ones can help improve the effectiveness of advertising efforts. The following is the timeline for the campaign:
- May – initiation, gathering primary data about the town
- July 1-10 – negotiating with partners.
- June 11-15 – creating educational materials.
- June 16-30 – Post information to the Facebook page, inviting Sentinel’s citizens to the group.
- July 1st – analyzing the campaign’s results
The KPIs of the campaign’s success will be based on the engagement of the audience with the posts and the number of Sentinel’s citizens who will add themselves to the Facebook group. If 50% of the citizens or 300 people will be a part of this group, the campaign will be considered successful, since in a small city such as Sentinel, the information is mostly spread through face-to-face communication, and most citizens know each other. Additionally, the number of posts likes and comments will be calculated as engagement and will indicate the interest that the citizens have in the posted content. The success in this category will be set at 10% of the number of people added to the group.
The costs for this campaign may involve targeted advertising, the services of a designer to make the posts more attractive, and payment for the healthcare professional who will be responsible for creating the content and communicating with the audience. One of the health professionals working at Sentinel may agree to volunteer for this project, setting the cost at $0. Next, the anticipated payment for advertisement and designer services is set at $200, mainly because it is a small town, and the majority of advertisements can be done face-to-face to invite people to the Facebook group.
Reflection
The impact of social media on the future of nursing practice is enormous. Mainly, the shortage of medical personnel in the United States and the issues with increasing costs require healthcare professionals to work on disseminating information about health and the prevention of diseases through lifestyle changes. Social media creates a unique opportunity to provide this information to a large group of people. Hence, I think that in my nursing practice, social media will become an important element of work where I will be able to share advice on how to prevent serious health conditions.
Summary
To conclude, this paper is an assessment of health-related environmental factors that affect the population’s health in Sentinel Town. The assessment of various aspects of the community and allowed developing an understanding of key issues contributing to poor health. The economic status does not allow citizens to access quality healthcare services, especially regarding the immigrant population. Therefore, the social media campaign will help address this issue by providing citizens with a trustworthy resource of information.
References
- Access to health services. (n.d.). Web.
- Best practice guide – Healthcare marketing. (n.d.).
- CDC. (2017). Factstats. Web.
- Clinic. (n.d.). Web.
- Dulce Lopez. (n.d.).Web.
- Jack Carter. (n.d.). Web.
- Janet Mills. (n.d.). Web.
- Sentinel demographics. (n.d.). Web.
- Sheriff’s Office report. (n.d.). Web.