Community Health Simulation

Community Health Simulation

Sentinel City

Sentinel City is an urban community with an approximated population of 634,265 people. About 183,930 of the people are below 18 years of age, while about 64,000 are 60 years and above. The City is composed of a larger percentage of Whites, who have an estimated ratio of eight out of ten of the total population. On the other hand, African Americans make about 10 percent while Latino comprises 3 percent of the total population. In Sentinel city, the overall family income is approximately $49,090 annually. However, the median wages vary among the four distinct neighborhoods; Industrial Heights area, Nightingale square neighborhood, Acer Tech Centre district, and Casper Park locality.

First, the Industrial Heights neighborhood has an estimated population of 38,855 persons, where the majority are whites, except for 46 percent, who are Hispanic, and 12 percent being Blacks (Moore, 2019). Persons below eighteen years of age comprise 21% percent and above of the total citizenry, while the utmost one percent is over 60 years. The average family income in the area is about $24,600, and about 37% of the inhabitants below 60 years lack a health assurance cover.

Second, the large part of Sentinel City, Nightingale square, consists of about 103,970 people, whose median household income is about $269,539. Only less than 4 percent of the total population is Latino, whereas 81 percent is made of Whites. Persons under the age of eighteen make about 5.5 percent of the total population, while those over 65 years of age make about 14 percent (Moore, 2019).

Furthermore, Acer Tech Centre consists of 168,390 inhabitants, and the average family income is about $166,300. The number of residents consists of 70 percent Whites, and close to 14 percent are Hispanic (Moore, 2019). Persons over sixty-five years make almost 21 percent, while minor residents make up seven percent. Out of the total population, the residents who lack health assurance are close to 1.5 percent.

On the other hand, the third wealthiest and most inhabited area is Casper Park District, which has a total of 352,643 occupants. Inhabitants who are above 65 years make up 6.5%, whereas those below 18 years account for 33.8%. The district has an average family income of $80,134 of all its residents. Also, the disabled persons in the area comprise 6.8% of the total number of residents. Whites make up 63% while the Latino 24%, and the rest is composed of other smaller races. The number of people above 65 years and who are uninsured accounts for 22.7% of the total inhabitants in the district.

In Casper District neighborhood, the affordable housing program gathers revenue through the sale of housing units; for example, a two-bedroom fetched an average of $16,000, one-bedroom $27,000, and a studio $33,000 last year. The studios and two-bedroom apartments recorded the highest number of occupants throughout the year. Property-related crime cases have reduced over the past year, where such crimes are reported on-property, the neighborhood, or around the City.

Casper Park district appears to be a devastating state, as the fields are littered with trash and piling building blocks. Workers from the affordable housing project are seen renovating the abandoned buildings (Moore, 2019). A market stall for fresh food stands outdoor sells vegetables and fruits to the residents, who gather around it. Most of the residents are seen on foot around the area. However, there is a visible overhead train track for residents to use it as travel means. Nightingale Square seems modern in the whole Sentinel city, as the buildings appear newer. Also, there are recreation grounds which offer arenas for different sports such as tennis.

Concerning safety benefits and effects observable in the community, no overt violence is portrayed in Sentinel City. People seem to stroll in groups comfortably, and graffiti on buildings is present throughout the City (Cooke, 2017). The risks visible around the City include broken and piled up windows, rodents, open fires around garbage cans, and dispersed garbage. Also, the devastated roads and sidewalks cut between buildings and city ways, with flowing filthy sewage on the roadsides.

Additionally, in the City, several parks and recreation amenities provide fitness programs, nutrition sessions, infant care, and swimming lessons. Citizens’ complaints around the City involve maintaining clean environments, drugs, crime, street children, and uncontrolled animals that roam in the neighborhoods (Prochaska, 2018). Citations issues comprise 30 percent on trespassing in the parks after legal hours, 23 percent on violent crime accounts, and public drug use covers sixteen percent. Besides, healthcare systems provide elderly care through medical campaigners, privilege assistance, and elderly mistreatment prevention advocates.

Twenty thousand meals in a fortnight or up to twenty-five thousand during summertime are supplied by the Soup Kitchen, this is a program under Interfaith Church in the neighborhoods (Moore, 2019). Soup Kitchen obtains funding from the USDA community and Supplemental food initiative. The more significant part of the beneficiaries of the meals is homeless persons, including homeless children.

Moreover, the Windshield survey is another community needs assessment aspect, where direct impressions of the Sentinel community are stated during both working hours and when most people are at home. Around the City, there are many multilevel buildings with neighborhood ones older and made of brick in the Industrial Height area (Singh, 2018). Most people are walking on foot, and a larger group around the Soup Kitchen at Interfaith Church and Bodega store sells processed foods only. Also, people wearing different religious clothing are seen around the City while children can be heard playing in the school located near the Casper Park area.

Acer Tech hosts city government main offices and several health headquarters. Also, it is a historical area, as listed in many buildings. The area also has some fruit sellers, where vegetables and fruits are available (Moore, 2019). Some protesters are seen outside the city hall in the distant beyond several billboards with health promotion messages placed throughout the City. Besides, several regions are found in the City, and the only way to distinguish them is through the signs on buildings, which belong to the same neighborhood.

Epidemiology involves the analysis of health determinants by noting the occurrence, distribution, and setting control measures of diseases in a population, in this case, Sentinel City. Throughout the City, health hazards, among other determinants exist, which act as a threat to public health. Nearly 20% of the total population under 60 years of age in all the neighborhoods do not have health insurance cover, which implies that they would not access full health care in case of illness. For instance, the food stalls and restaurants, such as Joe’s Grocery, are a threat to public health as the foodstuffs sold cause infections. Also, the environmental concerns of litter and poor sewerage patterns pose a health danger to the residents, especially in Industrial Heights. Most elderly persons, between the ages of 50-60 years, have diabetes in multiple regions. Besides, STI infections and mental illnesses among the younger residents were observed to increase with time. Therefore, the authorities need to curb the health risk posed to the younger generation in the neighborhoods.

The three main health problems affecting Sentinel City include an insufficient number of health centers, environmental health, and low community nursing initiatives. Despite that health centers within the neighborhoods are well equipped to conduct pregnancy tests and cancer screening occasionally in a year, they are not sufficient to address the health concerns of all the people in the four neighborhoods (Cooke, 2017). The Healthy People 2020 goal to address to health services is “Improve access to comprehensive, quality health care services”(Office of D isease Prevention and Health Promotion,2018).

Moreover, the state of the immediate environment is a concern. It includes, dilapidated buildings, sewerage channels passing near houses, and in the more impoverished areas trash is seen scattered all over. The Healthy People 2020 goal to address environment health  is to increase the proportion of fast-food restaurants where employees practice proper handwashing. Food safety lack in the districts to address health hazards, such as unhealthy foods in restaurants and poor conditions of the stalls that pose a risk to the general public. The Healthy People 2020 goal to address food safety is to increase the proportion of fast-food restaurants where food contact surfaces are properly cleaned and sanitized.

As a preventive measure, community nursing can improve the kind of foods sold in restaurants and reduce environmental health hazards by clearing the trash in the neighborhoods. Additionally, the administration in the four areas should ensure every citizen has the medical assurance to avoid unequal access to health care, especially to the homeless people (Marmot, 2017). Furthermore, health facilities need to be set up to serve STI cases and pregnancy issues, and also training of health care providers and the general public will help avoid more infections related to communicable diseases.

On the other hand, the health situation in the City provides an insight into the health risks and preventive measures in the community. In this case, environmental health issues can be reduced in many places, and nurses can transfer the mitigation measures against the spread of sexually transmitted infections to people in any community. Finally, nurses can employ knowledge from this community simulation to curb diseases that are caused by unhealthy foods in public restaurants such as Lilly’s café.

Lastly, nurses can use the information collected around the neighborhoods towards health improvement. The demographic knowledge indicates the number of people without health covers and the relative population of the young and old persons, which enables health care providers to know the best approach to use in health care. Environmental health is a major concern, and community nursing will provide an immediate solution through survey and control of unhealthy foods served to the public.  Also, more health centres need to be opened to address the health concerns, such as diabetes and STIs of the growing population in Sentinel City.

Application of this community health simulation in the society will involve conducting surveys first. Assessment is done on the condition of the roads, urban sewerage systems, garbage disposal sites, health facilities, insurance covers, and nature of diseases reported in such hospitals. When the assessment proves that health care measures are insufficient, then proper intervention is done to improve the health status of the people. Such interventions will involve the local authorities to ascertain that proper dumping sites of waste materials, better sewerage channels constructed are developed, and garbage collected around the urban community is recycled. Besides, regular appraisal of the health facilities and disease prevention measures is done to ensure favorable health conditions of the people around the community is maintained.

In conclusion, Sentinel city has four districts, which are the Acer Tech Centre, Casper Park neighborhood, the Industrial Heights, and Nightingale Square. These districts have different populations, each having a varied median household income. Most residents are Whites, while the smaller percentages comprise of Blacks and Hispanics. The parks and recreational centers in the City provides diverse activities, including swimming and tennis courts.

References

Cooke, D. (2017, October). Virtual Simulation-A Method of Clinical Instruction for Undergraduate Nursing Courses. In E-Learn: World Conference on E-Learning in Corporate, Government, Healthcare, and Higher Education (pp. 297-302). Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE).

Marmot, M. (2017). Social justice, epidemiology, and health inequalities. European journal of             epidemiology, 32(7), 537-546.

Moore, D. (2019). The Sentinel City: A Multivalent Resiliency Plan For Houston, Texas. Plan II Honors Theses-Openly Available.

Prochaska, J. D., Buschmann, R. N., Jupiter, D., Mutambudzi, M., & Peek, M. K. (2018). Subjective neighborhood assessment and physical inactivity: An examination of neighborhood-level variance. Preventive medicine, 111, 336-341.

Singh, J. P., Kroner, D. G., Wormith, J. S., Desmarais, S. L., & Hamilton, Z. (Eds.). (2018). Handbook of recidivism risk/needs assessment tools. John Wiley & Sons.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Office of Disease Preventionand Health Promotion.(2018). Preliminary FoodNet data on the incidence of infection with pathogens transmitted commonly through food—10 states, 2009. MMWR. 2010;59(14):418-22

This is the goald for environmental health: Goal

Promote health for all through a healthy environment.

this is the correc goal for food safety: Goal

Reduce foodborne illnesses in the United States by improving food safety-related behaviors and practices.