Christine Urbon
Jan 8, 2024 at 9:33 AM
While examining my community, I found a variety of health risks, gaps, and disparities that contribute to my communities overall populational health as a whole. I live in a community that has a lower economic status which affects many factors. Having lower incomes impacts peoples ability to have adequate food and nutrition and to rely on food banks as well as state assistance cards to feed there families. Fortunately my town is part of a free breakfast and lunch program for all students throughout the year which is also available during the summer months while students are out of school. Families struggling financially are also struggling with adequate healthcare accessibility due to high volumes of people attending the same clinics with limited time slots available. Another thing that people struggle with in my community is housing and utilities. My state does offer housing and utility assistance, but I have heard from many people that the income limits are so low that an average person who is struggling to make ends meet do not meet the criteria for any assistance. Without adequate shelter, heat, or electricity, health concerns can arise; especially in those with chronic respiratory illnesses such as asthma and COPD. Another factor affecting people in my community that relates to income is the lack of personal transportation and the reliance on public transit. Many in my community are handicapped which makes public transit more difficult to get to doctors appointments, which causes them to not attend at all.
In my community we also have a lot of people struggling with mental health, whether it is acute or chronic. Majority of this is in our homeless population and are triggered by substance abuse while others have undiagnosed disorders that they never received care for due to lack of resources. I feel as though a lot of people in my community do not perceive anxiety, depression, and stress as a need to seek medical attention. This could be due to cultural standards practiced in there homes or due to poor insurance coverage that they have available to them.
The implications for advanced nursing practice in my community would help serve an underserved community by assessing the communities needs as a whole as well as by individual and familial needs. By digging deeper to the root cause of the issues, advanced nursing can help provide programs and tools to help the community as well as provide different levels of prevention to the community to avoid health issues and illness