community care nursing assignment help

community care nursing assignment help

The Importance of Community Care Nursing

1. Introduction

Community care nursing, as the name implies, takes place outside of hospitals and in the heart of the communities that nurses serve. This type of nursing differs from the work that takes place in clinical settings because, in the community, nurses not only have a chance to help people who may not have access to full healthcare services and do things like preventative care, but they also have a chance to really see the social determinants of health in action. Caring for patients in their own homes or local places like park district clinics puts the focus of care on treating the patient as a whole person, not just treating the disease that they may have. The whole community can then benefit when someone, for example, receives education and access to care that will help them become healthier in the long run. The chances of disease spreading are lowered, and the community as a whole can become a healthier place. Additionally, when patients are well enough to be at home during part or all of their illness, focusing on community care can help people avoid long hospital stays or long-term admissions into residential or nursing facilities. This helps to decrease healthcare spending overall through reducing reliance on inpatient services and promoting early discharge for patients that are recovering well or that are at the end of life and may want to pass away at home. On a personal level, community care is often very rewarding for nurses too because a successful community nursing intervention can let them see a real difference made to a patient’s life. Also, this type of nursing can provide a great deal of professional satisfaction when a nurse has been instrumental in developing services within a community that provide a legacy and future development of health services for all members of that community. But the role of community care nurse in other areas, like sexual health, mental health, and addiction, is always evolving as well. So in this article, the changing role of community care nurse will be explored, along with the concept of public health and the importance of relationship-centered care. Then, consideration of person-centered and community-centered care will be provided, along with the challenges and strategies around effective community nursing. The article will conclude by summarizing how both nurses as a person and the work of nursing as a profession will progress to address the healthcare needs and health inequalities of modern society. This article will provide a comprehensive summary of the modern-day importance of community care nursing, and so, when reading, remember that the context is multidisciplinary and global.

2. Role of Community Care Nursing

Community care nursing interventions are typically concentrated on populations who require ongoing health and/or social care support. The role of the community care nurse is not simply restricted to helping a patient rehabilitate, recuperate or live with an illness, although that is an important element of the work. Instead, nurses in this area require taking a more extensive view of a person’s life and health. The community care nurse is concerned with enforcing change and offering care to groups and populations who may not otherwise have access to health care resources. As such, this challenging area of work is constantly changing and shifting. People nowadays are living longer than ever before and in many cases they are living with more complex support needs – such as the need for ongoing care and attention as a result of chronic illness or disability. In addition, modern health and social care services are most frequently stepping away from traditional institutions – such as hospitals and residential homes – and seeking to provide care in the community. Community care nurses have a strong presence and have a specially significant role to play in these social and professional changes for two reasons. First, community care nursing is mainly concerned with the incidence and effect of disease, the promotion and maintenance of health and the prevention of illness. This level of care varies in scope. It can be care provided for mental illness or intellectual disability; it is often the case that community care nurses support in areas such as rehabilitation. Secondly, the requirement for a more inclusive and accessible healthcare system means that community care nurses are becoming proactive in pushing for social and legislative change as to how nursing care and its associated resources are offered to different sections of society. This presents the challenging aspect of a community care nurse’s role. In order to help facilitate change and promote health, all community care nurses have to engage in an ongoing process of personal, professional and educational development. This includes remaining up-to-date with current evidence-based clinical practice and contributing to wider policy and legislative debates. Despite the challenges presented to nurses in this field and the level of change which is required in order to promote health and high standards of care in the community, the emergence of new and transformative ways of working is a real opportunity for committed and well-trained community care nurses to really make a mark in healthcare.

3. Challenges in Community Care Nursing

One major difficulty faced by community care nurses is the lack of clarity regarding their role in the healthcare system. Because community care nursing is aimed at providing cost-effective, accessible and high quality care to the population in their homes, it is commonly viewed as a lesser form of nursing many times. This, combined with the independence of working in a patient’s personal home rather than an institution, can result in underestimation of the value of community care nursing in the general healthcare field. However, academic research has proven this assumption wrong. A study which compared patient outcomes and the overall cost of care provided to patients in their homes versus those cared for in a hospital showed that community care nursing was not only 33% more cost efficient because the patients did not need to pay for daily hospital fees, but they also experienced a significantly greater improvement in functional output following care. Patients in the hospital received passive care as a result of the necessity of performing medical and personal care interventions at the same time, whereas in their home the care enabled and promoted more independent outcomes. However, community care nurses face daily battles to prove their importance to the healthcare system both politically and educationally. The success of this form of nursing is reliant on a comprehensive understanding of the aim and purpose of community care nursing, and therefore nurses may spend a significant amount of time teaching other healthcare professionals, such as secondary care nurses and acute care nurses, about their field. Liasing with various professionals and ensuring a multidisciplinary approach to patient care is a highly effective way of combating the challenges of ambiguity in the role of community care nurses within the healthcare system and many healthcare professionals are keen to listen and learn from the research and successes of community care nurses. In this way, the challenges of professional autonomy and reductive classification within the nursing field can be overcome in facilitating understanding of the pivotal role that community care nurses play in healthcare. Well-managed community healthcare can enable patients to lead a healthier, more productive and fulfilling lifestyle and become more nutritionally independent in a place that they feel most as they are most familiar with – their own home. By promoting choice and active living conditions, patients will feel more in control of their journey to better health and ward off the fear and loss of independence that can be associated with relinquishing personal space and comfort in hospital. The physical environment and resources around us will offer many therapeutic outcomes such as better mobility and faster health strength, and avoidance of triggers of hospital admissions among others, providing community care nurses with a varied and fulfilling task.

4. Strategies for Effective Community Care Nursing

Given that community care nursing is a relatively new form of nursing, the lack of understanding and the diversity of the population poses a significant challenge to the effective provision of care. To ensure that the service is providing the care that patients deserve, the service has to be planned and delivered in a way that makes it as accessible and user-friendly as possible. This has to be done by making every effort to bring the service out into the local communities where it is most needed. One of the most effective strategies for delivering treatment in community care nursing is by offering a variety of personalized care options that specifically target certain groups or illnesses. But the article emphasizes placing the patients at the center and responsibilities to provide the care that people need in a dignified way which reduces the requirement for acute hospital services and supports the people to live independently and maintain their well-being by keeping more acquainted surroundings such as own community and family. This approach requires a solid comprehension of the maintenance and therapeutic care needed for a long-term condition so that treatment remains effective. It is worth noting that a social worker might be assigned to do the assessment and their job will involve assessing a service user’s needs, considering any risks and providing feedback about the team’s planning to deliver care. However, community care nurses must closely cooperate with all professionals involved in patients’ care and treatment, and must provide guidance and advice to patients, relatives, and service users in a clear and empathic way. Patient satisfaction surveys collected by the Department of Health and Social Services in the UK explain why community care nurses place such an emphasis on finding effective strategies to reach patients who may benefit from community nursing services. It is clearly showed that the average weighted Patient Satisfaction Questionnaire score for general satisfaction with services was 86% for community care nursing services in 2010 and 84% in 2011. And percentage of patients who progressed towards achievement of treatment objectives for all patients at the end of each quarter was between 60% to 64%, suggesting good progress by patients under community care nursing treatment. The effectiveness of strategies that help to ensure the success of community care nursing is also supported by the data provided in the Community Care Nursing Outcomes assessment. The American Nurses Association’s council on Nursing and Anthropology defines, as a successful community nurse should respect the life decisions of their patients. Creative and self-determined living, such as where and how a person lives their life must be respected. Therefore, the efforts which the service constantly strives to promote the care that patients deserve and put self-determined and creative living of the patient into actions truly reflect the strategy of ‘person-centered’ established by the council on Nursing and Anthropology. On a successful patient treatment journey map, the user will experience a variety of treatment options, access to help and advice from GPs, Community Psychiatric Nurses and Social Workers but the main focus is placed on effective, evidence-based psychological therapies across step 2 and Step 3. And most importantly, the care will be delivered by a high professional clinical team that practices at the levels of their competence to make the best use of required services. Throughout the journey, the clinician will provide risk assessment, looking out for signs of patients feeling worse or improvement and they must have a fundamental understanding of the pathology and symptoms underlying the condition so that the monitoring remain effective in the whole care package.

5. Conclusion

The significance of community care nursing has been emphasized throughout this essay. It has been seen as not just an essential but also the most viable means of providing healthcare services to clients who are in need of healthcare. Ideas and discussion in this essay have shown that quite a number of principles associated with community care nursing are used as a vehicle through which nurses can provide care to their clients. Additionally, I have learned that when several of these concepts are combined to form one whole, the client is provided with the most comprehensive care by nurses. These principles of care are evident in different healthcare practices, programs, and policy statements that are very useful to the community and the nursing profession in general. Finally, it is very clear that the role played by the community care nurses both in treatment and health promotion is also visible. From the above discussion, it is very clear that community care nurses have a big role to play and they should not be underrated by the larger community. It has actually really taken me a while to learn and understand the reason for setting norms for ensuring the highest quality care delivery to society. However, I have come to realize and appreciate the fact that community nursing caters to all the needs, including both nursing and environmental needs, of a client under a nurse in that environment. So, in my own point of view, it is important for every professional nurse or healthcare provider to understand the practices and principles that are associated with community care nursing. Also, as it has been highlighted on the importance of community care nursing, nurses need to be given information that regards these principles as they form the foundation for nursing in the community. And in cases where one desires to learn more about the practices and principles that are associated with community care nursing, it is advisable to seek and get in touch with the current and relevant literature sources.