In a rural, Hispanic community, a health department well child clinic nurse identified a child with an elevated blood lead level. A public health nurse made a home visit to assess the home environment. She discovered the child’s father worked at a job where he was exposed to lead. The father wore his work clothes home every day and his wife washed them with the family laundry. The nurse collected blood samples from the other children in the home. In addition, she gathered dust samples with a small, handheld vacuum. The children had never seen a vacuum cleaner before. They always used a broom and dust rags to clean.
Next, the public health nurse visited the father’s worksite, where she took blood samples from other workers and identified 23 others with elevated blood lead levels. She worked with the reluctant, sometimes hostile, employer to develop worksite policies to protect the workers from exposure and to prevent the lead dust from being transported to the workers’ homes.
The nurse then visited the 23 families and interviewed each about their laundry and cleaning practices. She drew blood samples from family members and collected dust samples from their homes. Many of the children had elevated blood lead levels. The nurse had great difficulty convincing the reluctant families to travel many miles to see a doctor for what appeared to them to be an insignificant illness. The nurse revisited the worksite to assist with implementation of the new policies, ensure compliance and assure medical follow-up for the workers and their families.
For this Assignment, you will explore the roles and responsibilities of a public health nurse in providing care for vulnerable populations in the community such as migrant farm workers.
The Assignment:
Write a 1- to 2-page response to the case study presented. In your response, provide an explanation of the roles and responsibilities of the public health nurse in providing care for the population depicted in the case study scenario. Identify actions taken by the nurse which correspond to the three core public health functions you learned about in your readings and explain potential interventions that you might propose at the community, family, and individual levels. Then, explain the role a public health nurse would play in the interventions you identified.