Assignments, Chapter 2, Health Promotion and Disease Prevention
Written Assignments / Learning Objectives1. Find an article from the local newspaper about local or state issues related to health care in the community where you live. In an essay, analyze whether health care in your community puts a priority on disease prevention or health promotion activities and services. State your concerns about the priorities in your own state or city. Discuss why you believe this is a concern. How does the way your community addresses this issue compare with other cities and states? / 3, 4
2. Find articles from the local newspaper about health care issues in the community where you live that are funded by federal support. Some examples could be related to programs such as Medicare, Medicaid, or WIC; immunization programs; childhood screening;and the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) administered by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Other examples that you could investigate include vital statistics from your country as compared to other countries such as percentage of the population without insurance, IMR (infant mortality rate), life expectancy at birth, healthy life expectancy at birth, and total health expenditure as apercentage of the GDP. In an essay, analyze whether you think that the federal government puts a priority on disease prevention or health promotion activities and services. State what you think about the priorities in this country. How do they compare with cities and states in other countries? / 2, 3, 4
3. Reread the introduction to this chapter. Does it discuss any information that you were not aware of or anything that surprised you? If so, what?
•What new questions about health care and illness care come up for you as you read Chapter 2?
•What implications for the future of the profession of nursing emerge from these questions? / 1, 6
Group Assignments / Learning Objectives
1. Develop or find a survey to give to your classmates related to their self-care behaviors in primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention and health promotion. You may be able to find a survey for the topics you want to investigate on the Internet or at your state health department.Topics could be smoking, alcohol, and over-the-counter drug use; immunizations such as for the flu and hepatitis; sleep habits; participation in screening such as mammography and Pap smears; and breast self-examinations. Other topics could be participation in negative health behaviors that exacerbate health conditions, such as smoking in those who have asthma or a family history of asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or being overweight for those who have type II diabetes or a family history of diabetes. Participation in positive health behaviors could include regular exercise, strategies for weight management such as portion control or eating four to six servings of fruits and vegetables a day, or sleeping at least 8 hours a night.Keep the survey information for use in activities assigned in later chapters. / 4, 5
2. With a classmate, discuss a situation in your clinical experiences where you thought your client could benefit from nursing interventions that focus on disease and injury prevention rather than illness management.
•What nursing interventions had been used?
•What interventions would you try if you were the assigned nurse? / 4, 5, 6
Community and Clinical Assignments / Learning Objectives
1. If you were asked to prioritize strategies for lowering the risk of heart disease for individuals in your own community, what two strategies would you recommend? What resources are already available to address this need? What is lacking? / 1, 4, 5, 6
2.Think about a client you cared for in the hospital. How could the following elements of community-based nursing have been used in this person’s care?
•Self-care
•In the context of the family and community
•Preventive focus
•Continuity / 1, 4, 5, 6
3.Identify a client or client group in the clinical setting or in your community who would benefit from one or more of the interventions in the intervention wheel. Write a three-paragraph paper describing the client situation, the intervention you believe will benefit the client, and why it will benefit the client. What outcome do you hope for in this situation? / 1, 4
Web Assignments / Learning Objectives
1.Identify an issue related to health disparity and search the web usingGoogle, Medline, PubMed (pubmed.gov), or CINAHL search engines. Examples of key words areasthma, children, and uninsured. Try combining a health condition you are interested in with an age group and the words uninsured, disparity, poverty, or underserved. How many hits did you get? What key words did you use? What did you learn about disparity related to the topic you chose? Do another search and include the name of your state, province, or city to try to find information about disparity in your area of the country and the topic you chose. What did you discover? Write a one- to two-page paper on the topic you investigated including a summary of the disparity, why it is problematic, and what can be done to address the disparity. / 2, 3
2. Identify an issue related to health promotion that you are interested in learning about. Search the web using the Google, Medline, PubMed (pubmed.gov), or CINAHL search engine or of key words arehealth promotion, adolescents, and exercise. Try combining a health condition you are interested in with an age group and the words health promotion. How many hits did you get? What key words did you use? What did you learn about health promotion related to the topic you chose? Do another search and include the name of your state, province, or city to try to find information about health promotion activities in your area of the country and the topic you chose. What did you discover? Write a one- to two-page paper on what you learned. / 4, 5
3. Identify an issue related to disease prevention. Search the web using the Google, Medline, PubMed (pubmed.gov), or CINAHL search engine or of key words aredisease prevention, elderly women, and osteoporosis. Try combining a health condition you are interested in with an age group and the words disease prevention. How many hits did you get? What key words did you use? What did you learn about disease prevention related to the topic you chose? Do another search and include the name of your state, province, or city to try to find information about disease prevention activities in your area of the country and the topic you chose. What did you discover? Write a one- to two-page paper on what you learned. / 4, 5