Community Health Nursing Concepts: Overview of The Lesson
Community Health Nursing Concepts: Overview of The Lesson
Community Health Nursing Concepts: Overview of The Lesson
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MODULE 1
COMMUNITY HEALTH NURSING CONCEPTS
Instructor: Glenn M. Gamalier, Ed.D, RN
Recognizing the above scenario, this module discusses the general concepts of Community Health
Nursing. The primary goal of community health nursing is to preserve the health of the community and
surrounding populations focusing on health promotion and health maintenance of individuals, families, and
groups within the community.
Something to Ponder On
What is a community?
• A group of people with common characteristics or interests living together within a territory or
geographical boundary.
• It is a system of formal and informal groups characterized by interdependence and whose function
is to meet the collective needs of the group members. (E.g. need for education, shelter, leadership
etc.)
• Is a social unit in which there is a transaction of a common life among the people making up the
unit. Geographical or interest communities consisting of relatively small, non-institutionalized
aggregates of people linked together for common goals or other purposes.
• A locality based entity, composed of systems of formal organizations reflecting societal institutions,
informal groups and aggregates which are interdependent and whose function is to meet the wide
variety of collective needs.
• A group of people who share some type of bond and commonalities; who engage in interaction
with each other and which functions collectively regarding common concerns.
Operational definition - as a group of people in a specific time and place and have a common purpose.
Includes the components as people, location, social climate, social structure, social activity and sentiment
as well as the concept of outside influences.
Functional definition – “wherever the needs of the individual are being met”
• What is health?
1. Health-illness continuum model
Health is a dynamic state at any point between optimal wellness and death; a balance between
internal and external environments
Holistic as it reflects physical, emotional, intellectual, developmental, social and spiritual
dimensions
2. High-level wellness model
model recognizes health as an ongoing process toward a person’s highest potential of
functioning
3. Agent-host-environment (Epidemiologic) model
The agent, host and environment interact in ways that create risk factors, and understanding
these is important for the promotion and maintenance of health
4. Health belief model
People take preventive actions if the three conditions exist:
§ Seriousness of the disease
§ Susceptibility to the disease
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• Part of paramedical and medical intervention/approach, which is concerned on the health of the
whole population.
• Aims:
o Health promotion
o Disease prevention
o Management of factors affecting health
Public Health Nursing: the term used before for Community Health Nursing
According to Dr. C.E. Winslow, Public Health is a science and art of 3 P’s
• Prevention of Disease
• Prolonging life
• Promotion of health and efficiency through organized community effort
Hanlon
- Dedicated to the common attainment of the highest level of physical, mental and social well-being and
longevity consistent with available knowledge and resources at a given time and place towards most
effective total development life of the individual and society.
Purdom
- Prioritizes survival of human species and recognizes that each phase in human development is of equal
importance with the other phases
“ The utilization of the nursing process in the different levels of clientele – individuals, families, population
groups and communities, prevention of disease and disability and rehabilitation” – Maglaya, et al
Goal: “To raise the level of citizenry by helping communities and families to cope with the discontinuities in
and threats to health in such a way as to maximize their potential for high level wellness”.
- Nisce, et al
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COMMUNITY HEALTH NURSING (definitions):
• A specialized field of nursing practice that combines the skills of nursing, public health and some
phases of human assistance and functions.
• A science of Public Health combined with Public Health Nursing Skills and Social Assistance with
the goal of raising the level of health of the citizenry, to raise optimum level of functioning of the
citizenry. (characteristic of CHN)
Jacobson
Promotion of client’s optimum level of functioning through teaching and delivery of care.
Freeman
Developing and enhancing health capabilities of people.
Community health nursing is a vital part of Public Health and there are 12 principles that govern CHN.
1. The recognized need of individuals, families and communities provides the basis for CHN
practice. Its primary purpose is to further apply public heath measures within the framework of the
total CHN effort.
2. Knowledge and understanding of the objectives and policies of the agency facilities goal
achievement. The mission statement commits Community Health Nurse to positively actualize
their service to this end.
3. CHN considers the family as the unit of service. Its level of functioning is influenced by the
degree to which it can deal with its own problems. Therefore the family is an effective and available
channel for the most of the CHN efforts.
4. Respect for values, customs and beliefs of clients contributes to the effectiveness of care to the
client. CHN services must be available sustainable and affordable to all regardless of race, creed,
color or socio-economic status.
5. CHN integrate health education and counseling as vital parts of functions. These encourage
and support community efforts in the discussion of issues to improve the people’s health.
6. Collaborative work relationships with co-workers and members of the health team facilitates
accomplishments of goals. Each member is helped to see how his/her work benefits the whole
enterprise.
7. Periodic and continuing evaluation provides and means for assessing the degree to which
CHN goals and objectives are being attained. Clients are involved the appraisal of their health
program through consultations, observations and accurate recording.
8. Continuing staff education program quality services to client and are essential to upgrade
and maintain sound practices in their setting. Professional interest and needs of Community
Health Nurses are considered in planning staff development programs of the agency.
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9. Utilization of indigenous and existing community resources maximizing the success of the
efforts of the community health nurses. The use of local available ailments. Linkages with
existing community resources, both public and private, increase the awareness of what care they
need what are entitled.
10. Active participation of the individual, family and community in planning and making
decisions for their health care needs, determine, to a large extent, the success of the CHN
programs. Organized community groups are encouraged to participate in the activities that will
meet community needs and interests.
11. Supervision of nursing services by qualified by CHN personnel provides guidance and
direction to the work to be done. Potentials of employees for effective and efficient work are
developed.
12. Accurate recording and reporting serve as the basis for evaluation of the progress of
planned programs and activities and as a guide for the future actions. Maintenance of
accurate is utilized in studies and researches and as legal documents.
Health Promotion
- Consists of activities directed towards increasing the level of well-being and actualizing the health
potential of individuals, families, communities and societies.
Methods:
• Health education
• Nutrition
• Personality development
• Adequate housing, recreation, agreeable working condition
• Genetic counseling
• Periodic selective examination
Disease Prevention
Screening - the presumptive identification of unrecognized disease or defect by the application of tests,
examinations or other procedures that can be applied rapidly and inexpensively to populations
Screening Methods:
1mass screening
1 case-finding
1contact-tracing
1 multi-phasic screening
1 surveillance
3 Levels of Prevention
PRIMARY LEVEL SECONDARY LEVEL TERTIARY LEVEL
Health Promotion and Illness Prevention of Complications thru Prevention of Disability, etc.
Prevention Early Dx and Tx
Provided at – ► When hospitalization is ► When highly-specialized
► Health care/RHU deemed necessary and medical care is necessary
► Brgy. Health Stations referral is made to emergency ► referrals are made to hospitals
►Main Health Center (now district), provincial or and medical center such as
►Community Hospital and regional or private hospitals PGH, PHC, POC, National
Health Center Center for Mental Health, and
►Private and Semi-private other gov’t private hospitals
agencies at the municipal level
Community Organizing
Process by which the people organize themselves to “take change” of their situation and thus develop a
sense of being a community together.
Principles:
• People, especially the most oppressed and exploited sectors, are most open to change and are
able to bring about change.
• CO should be for the interest of the poorest sector of the society.
• CO should lead to self reliant communities.
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• Record of public health services in the Philippines date back to the Spanish regime
• 1577; Franciscan Friar Juan Clemente; opened a medical dispensary in Intramuros for the
indigent
• 1690; Dominican Father Juan de Pergero worked toward installing a water system in San Juan
del Monte and Manila
• 1805: Dr. Francisco de Balmis ( personal physician of King Charles IV); introduced the
smallpox vaccination
• 1876; provincial health officers (medicos titulares); appointed by the Spanish government
• 1888; 2-year course consisting of fundamental medical and dental subjects was first offered in
the University of Santo Tomas; Graduates of this course as cirujanos ministrantes serves as
male nurses and sanitation inspectors
• 1901; United States Philippine Commission, through Act 157, created the Board of Health of
the Philippine Islands, with a Commissioner of Public Health as its Chief executive officer
• The Board of Health is now the Department of Health
• Provincial and municipal boards of health were formed.
• Fajardo Act of 1912 created sanitary divisions made up of one to four municipalities. Each
sanitary division had a “president” who had to be a physician; a nurse as a sanitation inspector
• 1915; the Philippine General Hospital began to extend public health nursing services in the
homes of patients by organizing a unit called Social and Home Care Service, with two nurses
as staff.
• Associacion Feminista Filipina in 1905 founded La Gota de Leche, as the 1st center dedicated
to the service of mothers and babies
• 1947; Department of Health was reorganized into bureaus: quarantine, hospitals that took
charge of the municipal and charity clinics, and health with the sanitary divisions under it.
• The reorganization also placed the administration of city health departments at the bureau
level
• 1954; Congress passed R.A. 1082 or the Rural Health Act that provided for the creation of a
rural health unit in every municipality
• 1957; R.A 1891; equitable distribution of health personnel; amended provisions in the Rural
Health Act
• 1970; Philippine Health Care Delivery System was restructured, paving the way for the health
care system that exists to this day where health services are classified into primary, secondary,
and tertiary levels
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• 1991; R.A 7160 (Local Government Code); mandated devolution of basic services, including
health services, to local government units and the establishment of a local health board in
every province and city or municipality.
• 2000; The Philippines is a signatory to the United Nations Millennium Declaration adopted
during the World Summit; the member nations committed themselves to the attainment of the 8
Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). DOH is committed to the MDGs.
• 1999; DOH launched the Health Sector Reform Agenda; it implementation framework
FOURmula One (F1) for Health in 2005 and Universal Health Care in 2010
• September 6-12, 1978; health leaders around the 200 countries attended the International
Conference for Primary Health Care held at Alma Ata, USSR initiated by the WHO and UN
Children’s Fund (International Conference on Primary Health Care, Alma Ata, 1978)
• The Alma Ata Declaration on Primary Health Care emerged from this conference:
1. Health is a basic fundamental right.
2. There exists a global burden of health inequalities among populations
3. Economic and social development is of basic importance for the full attainment of
health for all
4. Governments have responsibility for the health of their people
• PHC strategy was adopted in the Philippines by virtue of LOI 949 of 1979, making the
Philippines the 1st country in Asia to embark on meeting the challenge of PHC.
• Government is driven to increase investment on health care. The WHO recommend
governments to allocate 5% of the gross national product (GNP) to health services.
• Essential health care based on practical, scientifically sound and socially acceptable methods
and technology made universally accessible to individuals and families in the community
through their full participation and at a cost to maintain at every stage of their development in
the spirit of self-reliance and self-determination
• The universal goal of PHC, as stated in the Alma Ata Declaration, is “Health for All” by the year
2000.
WHO identified 5 key elements to achieve the goal of “Health for All ”
1. Reducing exclusion and social disparities in health (universal coverage)
2. Organizing health services around people’s needs and expectations (health service
reforms)
3. Integrating health into all sectors ( public policy reforms)
4. Pursuing collaborative models of policy dialogue (leadership reforms)
5. Increasing stakeholder participation
o Most delicate members of the community, thus maternal and infant mortality rates
are among the common indications of a particular community.
E- Essential drugs
N- Nutrition
o Food is one of the basic needs of the family; if food is properly prepared, on may
be assured of healthy family.
o Malnutrition is one of the problems in the country.
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o Most communicable disease that affects the country are preventable; thus the
focus is on prevention treatment of these illness.
Principles of PHC
4As
1. Accessibility
2. Affordability
3. Acceptability
4. Availability
Levels of Prevention
Example: The community health nurse provides a diabetes clinic for a defined population
of adults in a low-income housing unit of the community.
R.A. 8423 - Traditional and Alternative Medicine Act of 1997 (Juan Flavier)
Term Definition
Acupressure - application of pressure on acupuncture pts. w/o puncturing the skin
- uses special needles to puncture and stimulate a specific part of the
Acupuncture
body
Aromatherapy - combines essential aromatic oils to then applied to the body
-“nutritional healing”, this improves health by enhancing the nutritional
Nutritional therapy
value to reduce the risk of the disease
Pranic Healing - follows the principle of balancing energy
- application of pressure on the body’s reflex joints to enhance body’s
Reflexology
natural healing.
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Learning Activities:
1. Define the following for your personal understanding, and suggest ways to check
whether your understanding is correct:
A. Community Health
B. Community Health Nursing
C. Primary Health Care
2. Choose a specific Public Health Program of Primary Health Care and identify its goals,
objectives and strategies for implementation.
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Lesson 2. Theoretical Models in Community Health Nursing
In lieu with the above situation, this module will help the students to assess, plan, intervene and
evaluate the care they provide in the community. Furthermore, it will equip the students with adequate
knowledge and appropriate skills that will promote and protect the health of the populations.
Something to Ponder On
A. PRECEDE-PROCEED MODEL
The PRECEDE-PROCEED model is a comprehensive structure for assessing health needs for
designing, implementing, and evaluating health promotion and other public health programs to meet those
needs.
• PRECEDE provides the structure for planning a targeted and focused public health
program.
• PROCEED provides the structure for implementing and evaluating the public health
program.
PRECEDE stands for Predisposing, Reinforcing, and Enabling Constructs in Educational Diagnosis and
Evaluation. It involves assessing the following community factors:
• Social assessment: Determine the social problems and needs of a given population and identify
desired results.
• Epidemiological assessment: Identify the health determinants of the identified problems and set
priorities and goals.
• Ecological assessment: Analyze behavioral and environmental determinants that predispose,
reinforce, and enable the behaviors and lifestyles are identified.
• Identify administrative and policy factors that influence implementation and match appropriate
interventions that encourage desired and expected changes.
• Implementation of interventions.
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PROCEED stands for Policy, Regulatory, and Organizational Constructs in Educational and Environmental
Development. It involves the identification of desired outcomes and program implementation:
Health Belief Model (HBM) is one of the most widely used conceptual frameworks for
understanding health behavior.
The HBM is based on the understanding that a person will take a health-related action (i.e., use
condoms) if that person:
2. Has a positive expectation that by taking a recommended action, he/she will avoid a negative
health condition (i.e., using condoms will be effective at preventing HIV), and
3. Believes that he/she can successfully take a recommended health action (i.e., he/she can use
condoms comfortably and with confidence).
The Health Belief Model is a framework for motivating people to take positive health actions that uses
the desire to avoid a negative health consequence as the prime motivation.
HBM is based on six key concepts. The following table, excerpted with minor modifications from
"Theory at a Glance: A Guide for Health Promotion Practice" (1997), presents definitions and applications
for each of the six key concepts. Examples of the concepts as they apply to sexuality education are
presented after this table.
The health promotion model (HPM) proposed by Nola J Pender (1982; revised, 1996) was
designed to be a “complementary counterpart to models of health protection.”
It defines health as a positive dynamic state not merely the absence of disease. Health promotion
is directed at increasing a client’s level of well-being.
The health promotion model describes the multi dimensional nature of persons as they interact
within their environment to pursue health.
The HPM is based on the following assumptions, which reflect both nursing and behavioral science
perspectives:
Theoretical statements derived from the model provide a basis for investigative work on health
behaviors. The HPM is based on the following theoretical propositions:
1. Prior behavior and inherited and acquired characteristics influence beliefs, affect, and enactment of
health-promoting behavior.
2. Persons commit to engaging in behaviors from which they anticipate deriving personally valued benefits.
3. Perceived barriers can constrain commitment to action, a mediator of behavior as well as actual
behavior.
6. Positive affect toward a behavior results in greater perceived self-efficacy, which can in turn, result in
increased positive affect.
7. When positive emotions or affect are associated with a behavior, the probability of commitment and
action is increased.
8. Persons are more likely to commit to and engage in health-promoting behaviors when significant others
model the behavior, expect the behavior to occur, and provide assistance and support to enable the
behavior.
9. Families, peers, and health care providers are important sources of interpersonal influence that can
increase or decrease commitment to and engagement in health-promoting behavior.
10. Situational influences in the external environment can increase or decrease commitment to or
participation in health-promoting behavior.
11. The greater the commitments to a specific plan of action, the more likely health-promoting behaviors
are to be maintained over time.
12. Commitment to a plan of action is less likely to result in the desired behavior when competing demands
over which persons have little control require immediate attention. 13. Commitment to a plan of action is
less likely to result in the desired behavior when other actions are more attractive and thus preferred over
the target behavior.
13. Persons can modify cognitions, affect, and the interpersonal and physical environment to create
incentives for health actions.
ü PERSONAL FACTORS
Personal factors categorized as biological, psychological and socio-cultural. These factors are
predictive of a given behavior and shaped by the nature of the target behavior being considered.
ü INTERPERSONAL INFLUENCES
o Cognition concerning behaviors, beliefs, or attitudes of the others. Interpersonal influences
include: norms (expectations of significant others), social support (instrumental and
emotional encouragement) and modeling (vicarious learning through observing others
engaged in a particular behavior). Primary sources of interpersonal influences are families,
peers, and healthcare providers.
ü SITUATIONAL INFLUENCES
o Personal perceptions and cognitions of any given situation or context that can facilitate or
impede behavior. Include perceptions of options available, demand characteristics and
aesthetic features of the environment in which given health promoting is proposed to take
place. Situational influences may have direct or indirect influences on health behavior.
Behavioral Outcome
Nancy Milio developed a framework for prevention that includes concepts of community – oriented,
population- focused care.
Milio stated that behavioral patterns of the populations-and individuals who make up populations –
are a result of habitual selection from limited choices.
She challenged the common notion that a main determinant for unhealthful behavioral choice is
lack of knowledge.
Milio’s framework described a sometimes neglected role of community health nursing to examine
the determinants of a community’s health and attempt to influence those determinants through public
policy.
Learning Activity
Connect It to Art
Directions: Select one theoretical model in CHN and create a poster to illustrate how these models
contribute to the total health in the community. Use any medium you may want, such as crayon, water
color, oil pastel, etc. Digital drawing can be use.
Total
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Community health nurses are frontline public health workers who have close
understanding of the community they serve. This trusting relationship enables them to serve as liaison/link
intermediary between health/social services and the community to facilitate access to services and improve
the quality and cultural competence of service delivery. Hence this module will help students to appreciate
the role of the community health nurse in promoting the health of community in the different fields such as
school and the workplace.
Learning Outcomes
After reading this module, the student should be able to do the following:
Something to ponder on
A. SCHOOL NURSING
The history of school nursing began with the earliest efforts of nurses to care for people in the
community.
§ National Association of School Nurses (NASN) provides the general guidelines and support for all
school nurses.
§ Require all school nurses use the nursing process throughout their practice
o Assessment
o Analysis
o Planning
o Implementation
o Evaluation
§ 11 criteria for professional school nursing practice:
o develop school health policies and procedures.
o Evaluate their own nursing practice.
o Interact with the interprofessional healthcare team.
o Ensure confidentiality in providing health care.
o Use research findings in practice.
o Ensure the safety of children, including when delegating care to other school personnel.
o Have a good communication skills.
o Manage a school health program effectively.
o Teach others about wellness.
§ American Academy of Pediatric (AAP) stated that school nurses should ensure the following:
o That children get the health care they need, including emergency care in the school.
o That the nurse keeps track of the state-required vaccinations that children have received.
o That the nurse carries out the required screening of the children based on state law.
o That children with health problems are able to learn in the classroom.
§ School nurses give care to children as direct caregivers, educators, counselors, consultants, and
case managers.
§ Healthy People 2020 Proposed Objectives state that there should be 1 nurse for every 750 children
in each school.
§ School Nurse Roles
o Direct Caregiver – school nurse is expected to give immediate nursing care to the ill or
injured child or school staff member. (traditional role of the school nurse).
o Health Educator – the school nurse in the health educator role may be asked to teach
children both individually and in the classroom.
o Case Manager – the school nurse is expected to function as a case manager, helping to
coordinate the health care for children with complex health problems.
o Consultant – the school nurse is the person best able to provide health information to
school administrators, teachers, and parent – teacher groups.
o Counselor – the school nurse have a reputation as being a trustworthy person to whom the
children can go if they are in trouble or if they need to confide about a personal matter.
Privacy and confidentiality, as in all health care are important.
o Community Outreach – when participating in community outreach, nurses can be involved
in community health fairs or festivals in the schools using that opportunity to teach others.
o Researcher – the school nurse is responsible for making sure that the nursing care given
is based on solid, evidence-based practice.
§ Primary Prevention
o Health promotion activities:
Ø Teaching healthy lifestyles
Ø Immunizing children for school entry
§ Secondary Prevention
o Screening of children for various illness
o Monitoring their growth and development
o Caring for ill or injured children and staff
§ Tertiary Prevention
o Caring for children with chronic health problems
o Health referrals and continuity of care
§ Adapted from the American Association of Occupational Health Nurses (AAOHN) (2004),
occupational and environmental health nursing is the specialty practice that focuses on the
promotion, prevention, and restoration of health within the context of safe and healthy environment.
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The agent-host-environment model of health and illness, also called the epidemiologic model,
originated in the community health work of Leavell and Clark (!965) and has been expanded into a general
theory of the multiple causes of disease. The model is used primarily in predicting illness rather than in
promoting wellness, although identification of risk factors that result from the interactions of agent, host,
and environment are helpful in promoting and maintaining health.
2. Host. Person(s) who may or may not be at risk of acquiring a disease. Family history, age, and
lifestyle habits influence the host’s reaction.
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3. Environment. All factors external to the host that may or may not predispose the person to the
development of disease. Physical environment includes climate, living conditions, sound (noise)
levels, and economic level.
Worker Assessment
Workplace Assessment
§ Worksite walk-through – purpose of this is to make the nurse to become knowledgeable about
the work processes and the materials, requirements of various jobs, the presence of the actual or
potential hazards, and the work practices of the employees.
Assessing the worker for a work-related problem is a critical practice element. The nurse need to do the
following:
• Complete general and occupational health history-taking with emphasis on workplace exposure
assessment, job hazard analysis, and list of previous jobs.
• Conduct a health assessment to identify agent and host factors that interact to place workers at
risk.
• Identify patterns of risk associated with illness/injury.
• Assessing the work environment is necessary to determine workplace exposures that create
worker health risk. The nurse need to do the following:
o Understand the work being done
o Understand the work process
o Evaluate the work-related hazards
o Gather data about incidence / prevalence of work-related illness/injuries and related
hazards
o Conduct a walk-through of the work environment
o Examine prevention and control strategies in place for eliminating exposures
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Learning Activities:
Study the pictures closely and answer the questions in the box. Remember that these pictures are closely
associated with the lesson that you read.
Berman, Audrey, Snynder, Shirlee J, and Kozier, Barbara. (2016). Fundamentals of Nursing: Concepts,
Process, and Practice. (10th Ed). New Jersey: Pearson Education Inc.
Clark, MJ., Famorca, Z., Nies, M., McEwen, M. (2013). Nursing care of the community: A comprehensive
text on community and Public health nursing in the Philippines
Leddy, S.K. (2006). Integrative Health Promotion: Conceptual Bases for Nursing Practice Sudbury, MA:
Jones and Bartlett.
Stanhope, M., Lancaster, J. (2014). Foundation of nursing in the community: community- oriented practice