The paradigm of healthcare has come a long way from a reactive model of response to illnesses and health issues to the proactive approach aimed at anticipating the community’s health risks. Thus, such a shift has had a profound impact on the nurse’s role in the health care context. If previously nurses were to take care directly of the patients struggling with health conditions, the modern perception of nursing comprises the notion of public education. Such education presupposes providing community residents with relevant information on disease prevention and action roadmap in case of symptoms emergence. Moreover, serving as intermediators between hospital administration and the overall population, nurses are to be proactive in terms of anticipating a community issue that may potentially influence people’s health. Essentially, community health nurse is a profession that implies improving the health conditions of many people with the help of eliminating social and environmental determinants of illness (Stenquist, 2020). Hence, considering this information, it would be reasonable to assume that community health nursing goes hand in hand with cooperation with various public and non-profit organizations.
To begin with, it is necessary to outline the importance of cooperating with various non-profit organizations. Thus, the primary thing that should be emphasized is the common goal pursued by both public health care and non-profit organizations, which is to help those seeking assistance. Since 2010, when Barack Obama issued Affordable Care Act (ACA), the goal of the public health sector has been to cover insurance for the vast majority of the US population (Stanhope & Lancaster, 2019). Although significant progress has already been made in the field, there are still millions of people who cannot afford insurance programs like Medicare. In such cases, many people rely on external financial resources. A prime example of such a resource is the network of faith-based organizations. As they try to find financial aid from the investors and fellow visitors, these organizations are able to allocate costs on the medical assistance for the community members in need. Sometimes, in order to secure support, public health organizations even pool their resources with faith-based organizations and create diverse communities aimed at promoting health and well-being through both medical and spiritual sources.
However, financial assistance is not the only reason for close cooperation between community health and public organizations. When working from a specific facility, community health nurses find it difficult to reach out to the local population because they are somehow confined to the places where people come with already existing problems (Stanhope & Lancaster, 2019). For this reason, nurses are to find community representatives capable of promoting public health and health hazard elimination from society. The best option for such representatives is non-profit organization leaders, as they may see an opportunity to combine their purpose to help fellow residents with the intention of preserving community health.
As a result, nurses may prepare educational information in the form of events or brochures and spread this information within the public organizations’ network. In such a way, they could ensure increased public health awareness in the community. Moreover, some public organizations are specific to a particular ethnic or cultural group. When cooperating with such organization, community health nurses are able to increase their level of cultural competency by creating public health initiatives relevant to a given community (Stanhope & Lancaster, 2019). Hence, taking these aspects into consideration, it may be concluded that community stakeholders play an exceptional role in public health promotion, as they contribute to the rapid information exchange and support system for community residents.
References
Stanhope, M., & Lancaster, J. (2019). Public health nursing e-book: Population-centered health care in the community. Elsevier Health Sciences.
Stenquist, A. (2020). What is community health nursing? Examining this important role. Web.