Public Health There Are a

Public Health There are a number of things that I can do as a health care administrator to further the goals set out by the CDC in its Public Health Priorities video. The video identifies a number of key areas -- HIV management, tobacco, nutrition/obesity, infections, motor vehicle injuries and unintended pregnancies. A lot of these are preventable with some education and there are some other efforts that can be done as well. Education, however, remains the best way to address a number of these different issues.

Tobacco use, driving, pregnancy and HIV are all issues that can be reduced in the community with a community-based education program. Getting the message out to schools and to the general public seems to be an easy thing to do -- promotions, advertising, social media and educational web sites all serve the purpose. But some of the issues can be tackled with more comprehensive issues. Nutrition is something that can be dealt with at least partially with an awareness campaign.

The most important thing is to understand the role that nutrition plays in our health - I think that connection has not always been drawn well by the medical community (Shils, Olson, Shike, 1994). The other thing with nutrition, however, is to work with leaders in the community to ensure that there is ample availability of good, healthy food options. Many people end up obese because our society makes it hard to make the right choices sometimes.

Food is not available, we drive everywhere, and few people can really see the alternatives when pressed. So there is definitely a point where we can educate people, but other advocacy needs to be taken into consideration here as well. Obesity is a sideline to nutrition but certainly exercise is something that can help deal with that problem. Working with employers to give workers access to exercise is one strategy that I would explore. Infections at the medical clinics can often lead to adverse outcomes.

It is actually shocking that we still have problems with this, 130 years after Pasteur told us to sterilize our equipment. This is the one problem over which we have the most control, because it is entirely internal in nature. We can train our people, communicate with them, and ensure that they are performing correctly. There has to be an understanding that there are severe consequences for failing to ensure proper sterilization. This issue is one where I would want to guarantee 100% elimination of the problem at my facility.

HIV and teenage pregnancy are relatively straightforward issues. We need to make sure our young people are equipped with knowledge and have access to contraceptives (Kirby, Laris & Rolleri, 2007). There is no point in putting them at risk to satisfy some busybody's need to tell others how to live. We need to combine our efforts with a massive education program, because these are lessons that young people need to know -- you cannot just turn back from either of these things.

They are life-changing, and young people need to be aware of this. Lastly, automobiles are a real challenge. People fail to realize that there is a wide range of driving abilities on the road, and we therefore see people who are not driving defensively enough. We see drunk drivers, high drivers, people texting while driving, and they end up in our trauma center, maybe bits of them.