Community Health Practice Settings

Community Health Practice Settings

One famous quote dictates that prevention is better than cure. In line of thought with this phrase, primary healthcare focuses on prevention by reducing risk factors and thus increasing health promotion and prevention in a community. As such, Health Education and Community Promotion is one area in community health that captures my attention and interest as a nurse. One community setting that I would like to work at is elementary schools. Such a setup is occupied by children under the age of six, who are highly vulnerable to diseases of different kinds, primarily hygiene-related diseases (Oyibo, 2012)

. With this community setting, children barely know the value of maintaining good health, especially when they are away from their parents or guardians (Oyibo, 2012). Also, their population may be large, that their instructor may not be able to monitor every child. The vulnerability and susceptibility of children to diseases because of lack of knowledge are why I would choose this setting. Thus, starting health education in such an environment ensures the continuity of a community by maintaining the proper health of the children.

The healthcare setting varies as the environment would be comprised of children from different backgrounds. Young children are mostly infected by germs-causing diseases (Oyibo, 2012). These are diseases such as cholera, typhoid, flu, dysentery, and coughs. An outbreak of these diseases in a school setting would be problematic as the illnesses are communicable (Holveck et al., 2007). Healthcare in such a setting, in regards to my interest, would revolve around educating children on how to maintain personal hygiene and that of their surroundings. This way, they would learn preventive measures such as washing their hands after visiting the toilet, not sharing personal items, cleaning and disinfecting commonly used surfaces, and staying at home when sick (Holveck et al., 2007). Also, it is at a young age that different immunization vaccines are administered to prevent infectious diseases.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Reference

Holveck, J. C., Ehrenberg, J. P., Ault, S. K., Rojas, R., Vasquez, J., Cerqueira, M. T., … & Periago, M. R. (2007). Prevention, control, and elimination of neglected diseases in the Americas: pathways to integrated, inter-programmatic, inter-sectoral action for health and development. BMC Public Health, 7(1), 6.

Oyibo, P. G. (2012). Basic personal hygiene: knowledge and practices among school children aged 6-14 years in Abraka, Delta State, Nigeria. Continental Journal of Tropical Medicine, 6(1), 5.