New Opportunities in Community Settings

Community based nursing has new opportunities in community settings. The rationale for these opportunities is the change in demographics, change in disease patterns, increase in the chronic illness and reform in the health financing system. Now various health communities play an important role in representing the new and advanced way of providing community nursing to a large group of population.

On the basis of your reading, answer the following questions:

• The conceptual frameworks applied to community-oriented nursing practice expand the scope of nursing care by addressing non-medical aspects of health. Those who are not familiar with healthcare perceive nurses as providers of hands-on care only. Suggest ways to change this perception.
• What makes nursing case management special? Is it appropriate for everyone? Give reasons.
• Populations can be defined by inclusion or exclusion criteria, using one or many of either type. Using factors in addition to medical tests, diagnoses, and so forth, prioritize the characteristics you think are important in defining a population for community health nursing.

Health care Community Services

Identify four organizations in your community that deliver primary health care. Based on the objective material that you can obtain, determine whom each organization serves; what services each provides; and where each organization gets its funding from. Also evaluate the relative value of each organization’s services to individuals and families in the community.