Geopolitical And Phenomenological Place Influence Essay
- Discuss how geopolitical and phenomenological places influence the context of a population or community assessment and intervention.
- Describe how the nursing process is utilized to assist in identifying health issues (local or global in nature) and in creating an appropriate intervention, including screenings and referrals, for the community or population. 3 citations needed within 5 years.
Geopolitical And Phenomenological Community
A geopolitical community is a spatial designation that is defined by either man-made or natural boundaries. It is a geographic designation of an area. It is geopolitical because it is defined by the political and geographical phenomena. The boundaries include rivers, mountains, valleys and roads.
On the other hand, a phenomenological community is a relational designation. It is defined by feelings of belonging. A phenomenological community is said to be a group of people who are defined by sharing values, customs, interests, religion or academic interests. It is a phenomenological community because members share common beliefs and interests.
While providing services for different communities, community health nurses face the challenge of adaptability (). Since the nurses have to identify themselves with the community they are serving, they may have difficulties adapting to the practices, beliefs and expectations of the different communities within a short span of time.
They also experience the challenge of language barrier and acceptability. However, it is beneficial for them since they attain the experience of dealing with the different communities. For similar communities, community health nurses may be faced with the challenge of familiarity. For the same community, a community health nurse may face the challenge of being used to the people.
In some instances, the members of the same community may view the community health nurse as inexperienced, and may not take what the nurse says seriously. Some benefits for similar and the same community are that the community health nurse is familiar with the language and the beliefs of the people one is serving. Such a benefit eases the work of the community health nurse.
Some solutions for the challenges would include matching a solution for a specific challenge. For example, community health nurses may be assisted by interpreters where there is a language barrier, or take some time to study the language of the people. In addition, the nurses should not be transferred anyhow to communities that are very different from their backgrounds.
For similar and same communities, the community health nurses should carry themselves with dignity in order to command respect from the community members, who will in turn consider them serious.
Geopolitical is a destination, a geographical area or place, it can either be formed by man made boundaries such as a street, bridges, highway, or by natural boundaries like mountains. I live in Tucson and my boundaries are set by the city. The Tucson boundary lies next to Marana. Studies in epidemiology and statistics in my area will be done by the geographical area.
The Phenomenological community is where I live, I live in a middle class neighborhood with children of the same age as mine, and the neighbors are like minded such as myself. We all go to work pay our bills, raise children and have a quiet family life (Maurer & Smith, 2013).
A phenomenological community exists because the people in it have a common interest. I live in a geopolitical community but I might be a member of several phenomenological communities (Maurer & Smith, 2013) For example my job is where I belong, I have friends as well as coworkers there and we all have one common goal, to do the best for our patients.
Challenges for the nurse may arise when dealing with a community that has a high crime rate, and other issues as opposed to another community that does not. The nurse needs to gather data and use theory models to solve those issues. Two models are available to nurses when doing community health, community as partner model, and energy theory.
Both views see community as a network (Maurer & Smith, 2013). If the nurse uses these models the nurse works in partnership with the community to address concerns.
Looking at the community with these models is used to determine where the needs are.
One community may have an older population and need education on heart disease, another community may have a high number of females and need more health services for women.
Understanding customs and beliefs is needed by the nurse when planning an intervention for this community, there are phenomenological communities such as Sons of Norway club that are based on the cultural heritage. The nurse should also look at the community’s strength and build upon it (Maurer & Smith, 2013).
This pack provides practical help and guidance to a nurse1 undertaking community health needs assessment. It provides information and advice on the stages of needs assessment, enabling the nurse to complete the process realistically within her/his everyday work. This pack does not assume any prior knowledge of the subject.
What Is A Community Health Needs Assessment?
Community health needs assessment is a process that:
- Describes the state of health of local people
- Enables the identification of the major risk factors and causes of ill health
- Enables the identification of the actions needed to address these
A community health needs assessment is not a one-off activity but a developmental process that is added to and amended over time. It is not an end in itself but a way of using information to plan health care and public health programmes in the future. The steps of community health needs assessment are as follows.
Profiling
The collection of relevant information that will inform the nurse about the state of health and health needs of the population; and analysis of this information to identify the major health issues.
- Deciding on priorities for action
- Planning public health and health care programmes to address the priority issues
- Implementing the planned activities
Evaluation Of Health Outcomes
Why do it? Geopolitical And Phenomenological Place Influence Essay The needs assessment will enable the nurse to:
- Plan and deliver the most effective care to those in greatest need
- Apply the principles of equity and social justice in practice
- Ensure that scarce resources are allocated where they can give maximum health benefit
The term “nurse” is used as a generic term throughout this pack to cover all nurses, midwives and public health nurses.
They work collaboratively with the community, other professionals and agencies to determine which health issues cause greatest concern and plan interventions to address those issues.
Concepts And Principles Of Health Needs Assessment
This pack uses a holistic model of health, emphasizing the social, economic and cultural factors that affect health as well as individual behavior. The concept of “need” used in this pack incorporates those needs felt and expressed by local people as well as those defined by professionals. It moves beyond the concept of demand and takes account of people’s capacity to benefit from health care and public health programmes.
Factors Affecting Health
Health is affected by a number of factors:
The physical environment in which people live, such as the quality of the air they breathe and the water they drink
The social environment – the level of social and emotional support people receive from friends and/or family
Poverty, a significant factor worldwide, which shortens and reduces enjoyment of life;
Behavior and lifestyle – for example, smoking causes lung cancer and coronary heart disease so a reduction in this behavior will reduce the disease
Family genetics and individual biology – if you come from a healthy family you have a better chance of staying well.
This pack will encourage the nurse to consider all these risk factors in relation to a community and make an assessment of their importance.
