The medical sector has a significant influence on community services. Whether you’re a nurse or a doctor, your words get taken seriously. People depend on you for answers. So, never assume that what you say doesn’t influence a community. Being a part of the healthcare sector allows you to utilize your influence to achieve healthcare outcomes.
Nurses hold a unique perspective of how communities work, and they are well aware of how the physical, social, and economic factors can influence a patient’s health. If the healthcare sector wants to bring change, they need to start with the community. There are numerous ways nurses can create an impact, but it’s a mixture of action and implementation in a nutshell. If you’re a nurse, here are some essential aspects that you can work with to spread influence:
1. Work With The Public Health Sector
The public health sector is all about dealing with infectious diseases. These professionals study the trajectory of these diseases, such as where they stemmed from and their prognosis. Nurses can help these officials collect the data, make graphs and help in the compilation of data that can help the public. For example, the public health sector discovers that a particular community has unhygienic practices. Extracting data from the community, these professionals can pinpoint their infections and how far they spread. Nurses can help the community improve their hygiene standards and even administer proper medical care.
2. Specialize In Fields
Nurses who hold more professional degrees are an asset to the community. These professionals can access the community in a more informed manner. Nurses can opt for MSN to NP programs online to study in a self-paced routine to hone their skills. While, studying online teaches you vital time management skills, making you find an effective work-study balance. Specialization allows nurses to treat patients and even prescribe a treatment route, which can venture out of their hospitals and work with patients in clinics such as retail ones. The community can significantly benefit from their knowledge and tap into clinic facilities that are generally unavailable.
3. Help Community Cope With Lifestyle Changes
Our lifestyle impacts the way we live. If we follow a poor lifestyle, the chances of leading an imperfect life are very high. Nurses can help the community cope with lifestyle changes. These include dealing with conditions that directly impact the community, such as obesity. Nurses can help the community struggling with obesity track down the cause of obesity. These could be due to family history, poor diet, or a lack of physical mobility. A nurse can narrow down the reason and help the community make changes to help them cope. Gradually, the community will improve and lead much healthier lives.
4. Deal With Chronic Conditions
Chronic issues can last for a lifetime and are debilitating. Common chronic conditions include diabetes, heart attack, and arthritis. While the population can take medicines for remedial purposes, the condition can continue to flare. Nurses can help patients manage their lifestyles and monitor their medications to help patients deal with their chronic health. In cases where surgery is necessary, they can connect the population to the nearest facility and have that sorted. They can also guide the people on the medical equipment they can keep in their house to help them deal.
5. Reaching Out To Rural Communities
Most hospitals are in the urban sector. These hospitals have state-of-the-art facilities and care available for patients. However, rural communities are located in far-off places. These communities don’t have the resources to tap into these hospitals. Nurses can reach out to these communities and help them with primary healthcare. If a nurse feels that someone is suffering from severe symptoms, they can call for an ambulance. People with manageable symptoms are provided with medicines and vaccines to combat symptoms. The rest of the population can get guided to the nearest hospital to help them get better.
6. Volunteer Out Of The Hospital
Nurses can do more than work in hospitals. They can work with NGOs or even vaccination centers to help people get vaccinated. These professionals can also work in testing centers administering tests to the community and guiding them about the results. When community workers get help outside of the hospital, they can reduce the burden on hospitals. While hospitals are there for you to use, getting simple tests can get tedious. So to avoid long waiting hours, nurses can help out in test centers.
7. Educate The Community
Educating the community is part of the wellness program. Education covers all essential elements of the healthcare sector that the population needs to know. Knowledge about vaccines, neonatal care, and even hygiene standards need proper discussion. Nurses can provide relevant expertise and information to these communities and help them improve their health. Educating the community also comes under advocacy. The decision one member takes impacts the whole community. So they can’t be ignorant about the choices they make. For example, if the community decides not to get vaccinated, it can endanger the lives of thousands of people. Therefore the proper knowledge and right expertise can help counter these problems.
8. Deal With Social Issues
Social issues can often mingle with medical problems. Incidents like substance abuse may start as harmless recreational activities. However, with time the issue is no longer isolated. Nurses can help social workers identify cases of substance abuse. These professionals can then help people going through substance abuse crises to get help. Help includes checking them into rehab and checking them into therapy. While the person is weaning off substances, it is also essential to check the functions of their organs, such as the liver. Nurses can also check what other organs such as the brain and heart get impacted with excessive use.
Wrap Up
Nurses do much more than work in hospitals. These professionals also work in community settings to help the population get better from the get-go. Working with the community is a multi-layered process. It involves working with the community to understand their problems. Once those are understood, the community gets walked through appropriate treatment routes. If the case is too severe, nurses can arrange for ambulatory emergency services. Working with the community also means educating them and volunteering in their test centers and vaccine centers. It also includes training community nurses to help gain community outcomes. The ultimate conclusion of hard work is a healthy and thriving community. For any society, a healthy community is the core of functionality.