Role of Community Health Nurse
There are many roles of community health nurse, some of which are; Care provider, Health educator, counselor, resource person, sensitive observer, advisor, planner, care manager, and medical assistant. All of these will be discussed below in this article.
Community Health Nursing
According to WHO, Community health nursing is a population-focused, community-oriented approach aimed at the health promotion of an entire population, and the prevention of disease, disability, and premature death in a population. The primary goal of community health nursing is to help a community protect and preserve the health of its members, while the secondary goal is to promote self-care among individuals and families. In the hhealthcarereform environment, the community health nurse will probably continue to care for individuals and families, particularly high-risk clients and those with communicable diseases. Community health nursing involves the identification of high-risk aggregates in the community, and the development of appropriate and workable policies and interventions to ensure accessible services for all groups of the population.
A community health nurse performs various functions while working in any defined community health setting. There are various factors that determine the roles & functions of a community health nurse. In general, the community health nurse performs the following functions according to her roles as follows:
1. Care Provider
The Nurse provides continuous and comprehensive care to the family, group of people, and community at large. She emphasizes more on promotive and preventive health care. The community health nurse approaches the family and persuades them to implement promotive and preventive measures. Care during illness is beneficial in gaining acceptance, trust, and confidence. The Nurse also provides care during illness for which usually the family members come forward to seek help. As care is given the nurse educates and helps the family members to develop their abilities and overcome their barriers so that they can take care of their health and nursing needs, promote their health, and prevent illness. The care is provided at home, clinic, school, workplace ,etc.
This function is referred to as “CARE PROVIDER ROLE”
2. Health Educator
The community health nurse educates the individual, family, groups of people, and the community at large. Health education thus given focuses on promoting health, preventing illness, and aspects related to care during illness and rehabilitation & disability prevention. The nurse conducts planned health education sessions for organized community groups e.g., school children, antenatal mothers, eligible couples, elderly, etc. Health education for the family is planned and implemented as part of the family care plan. The community health nurses are involved in giving incidental/casual/spontaneous health education according to the situation. (washing of hands before a child eats)
These functions refer to as “HEALTH EDUCATOR ROLE”
3. Counselor
The community health nurse helps individuals, families, and the community at large to recognize and understand their problems to be solved, find solutions within resources and implement feasible and acceptable solutions.
4. Resource Person
The community health nurse explores community resources in terms of money, manpower, material, agencies, etc. They make use of these resources in helping individuals, family groups ,and communities to meet their health and nursing needs.
5. SENSITIVE OBSERVER
The community health nurse makes observations of any untoward change in health behavior and health status of the community, people, their surroundings, and unusual occurrence of disease & takes action accordingly. For example; Providing information, and health education to people to improve their behavior and health status, working with the family and providing direct care during illness, and notification to health authorities about communicable diseases.
6. ADVISOR
Community health gives some suggestions on the practical situation which requires immediate actions and where there is little scope for health education. For example; In the case of a client with diabetes mellitus, the community health nurse advises with concern on the foods to be included and avoided. (according to the socio-economic condition of the individual & family)
7. PLANNER
The community health nurse while giving comprehensive care to family and community makes a plan based on identified health problems and health & nursing needs. They plan with other team members to provide appropriate care, which is referred to as the planner role.
8. CARE MANAGER
The community health nurse implements the care which is planned for the family and community. They directly provide care with the active participation of family and community members. They make use
of family and community resources. They
guide the family and community and
refer when required. She maintains a
record of the care given to families
and the community. The community health
nurse evaluates the effectiveness
of care given in terms of change in health
status, health behavior, reduction in
illness, improvement in clinic
attendance-immunization & rate of
utilization of the community health
services.
9. MEDICAL ASSISTANT ROLE:
The community health nurse assists the physician and co-ordinates with the other team members in the community
health care team in rendering community health services.
They obtain information from the physician and explain it clearly to the clients, and families, helping and guiding them to carry on medical treatment at home.
Read More about role of nurse in community in the following
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