The Role of a Community Health Care Nurse

A community health nurse is charged with working within the community to deliver preventive healthcare services and support population health. This will be done by analyzing and assessing the community by using the available data and collection of additional data in order to have information that is necessary to assess, plan, implement, and evaluate the health of the community. A community health nurse is also charged with program planning and policy development for supporting the health of the families and individuals in a community (Cramm, Hoeijmakers, & Nieboer, 2014). The community health nurse is also required to communicate with the community stakeholders, individuals, and families to determine attitudes and knowledge regarding the needed and available health services. Working in various environments from health centers and clinics to residential accommodation and the patient's own home, the community nurse is charged with offering support to the health care system by meeting the needs of the elderly, disabled, or vulnerable patients who are not able to visit the hospital. Community nurses are charged with offering educational and advisory services to the patients and their families. In some extreme cases, community nurses are required to offer emergency care, especially where the patient has suffered complications like cardiac arrest or had an accident. A community health nurse provides direct care, educates the public or individuals, advocates for health improvement, and performs research within the community to determine the appropriate health strategy for their community.
Assisting the Families of Patients in Their Home Settings
The community health nurse will analyze the needs of the patient in order to determine what the patient needs within their home setting. After conducting the analysis, the community nurse will advise the family on how best they can take care of the patient. The community health nurse will also be available to offer assistance to the families of the patients by regularly visiting the families and checking up on the patient. When the patient does not have a caregiver available, the community health nurse can offer to assist in taking care of the patient. Many of the family members might find it hard to administer injections to the patient and they could use the services of the community nurse to administer injections to the patient. A community health nurse is charged with meeting the needs of the patient and advising the family on the best course of action regarding the patient. Offering health education services to the families of the patients ensures that they understand the patient's condition and assists the families to find affordable health care (Shah, Kaselitz, & Heisler, 2013). The community health nurse will also discuss with the families of the patient prevention methods that family member should undertake in order to ensure that the disease does not spread to other family members. In some cases, the community nurse might also distribute medications or health-related items in order to prevent certain health problems.
Barriers Related to the Initiation of Home Care Services in Communities
Many of the patients and the community do not understand what it means to offer home care services. This makes it hard for them to comprehend and get on board with the idea of home care services. Getting the acceptance and buy-in from the community is hard because many see it as an additional burden and they do not see the benefits of this kind of care for the patient. Failure to see how the patient would benefit makes a majority of the community members hesitant to accept home care services. The community members might fail to understand the disease the patient is suffering from and they might agitate the patient's disease more without knowing. Not all community members are willing to offer their services in order to support a member of the community. This makes it hard to have someone who will check up on the patient on a regular basis. Without enough volunteers, it becomes hard to initiate home care service within a community because a majority of the patients will need assistance with personal care, cooking, and homemaking (van der Steen et al., 2014). The success of home care services is dependent on the community willing to accept the responsibility to care for the sick and elderly within the community. This is mostly fraught upon because some of the community members see it as a burden.
Home Care Services in an Urban Area Versus a Rural Area
Home care services in rural areas are hard to deliver because a majority of the residents live in remote areas. Rural homes are far apart and it is not easy to have community members checking up on a patient as often as would be required. In urban areas, however, the case is quite different. Since communities live close to each other it is easy for community members to check up on the ones in need as often as possible and this improves the quality of care offered. In rural areas, there is a shortage of community health workers. The shortage of health workers makes it hard to have community and home care services because the patients will receive sporadic and inconsistent care. This is quite opposite in urban areas as there are many community health nurses and volunteers who are willing to offer their services to the needy within the community. There is a long wait time for patients in the rural area as compared to that of the patient in urban areas. Follow up services are hard to implement due to the nature of rural areas. Living in rural areas makes it hard for a community health nurse to follow up on the patient regarding their home care service. Reduced follow up makes the patient complacent and they might not take care of themselves or take their medication as prescribed.


References
Cramm, J. M., Hoeijmakers, M., & Nieboer, A. P. (2014). Relational coordination between community health nurses and other professionals in delivering care to community?dwelling frail people. Journal of Nursing Management, 22(2), 170-176.
Shah, M., Kaselitz, E., & Heisler, M. (2013). The role of community health workers in diabetes: update on current literature. Current diabetes reports, 13(2), 163-171.
van der Steen, J. T., van Soest-Poortvliet, M. C., Hallie-Heierman, M., Onwuteaka-Philipsen, B. D., Deliens, L., de Boer, M. E., . . . de Vet, H. C. (2014). Factors associated with initiation of advance care planning in dementia: a systematic review. Journal of Alzheimer's Disease, 40(3), 743-757.