Week 3 Discussion-Preventing Disease in Communities

NURS 4115 Role of the Nurse in Public and Global Health Week 3 Discussion

Preventing Disease in Communities: The Role of Public Health, the Silent Sentinel

Week 3 Discussion-Preventing Disease in Communities

In this Discussion, you will visit a site and interview people who work there about risks for disease transmission, then report on your findings.

To prepare, select which site you will visit from the following options:

High school nurse’s office

Water treatment plant

Public health department

Pediatrician’s office

Create a brief description of your setting, providing some context; for example, how many patients are seen, size or capacity of the facility as applicable, and/or the location of the office or organization.

 

Take pictures of the building and surrounding area/neighborhood to provide context. You do not have to include the interior/s of the building/s or people/clients who may be there.

Then, during your site visit, pose the questions listed in the following chart:

High school nurse

What is the school’s policy on giving students advice about birth control?

How often do you get requests for information about birth control or how to protect oneself from an STD?

How do you track vaccination compliance, and what happens to students who fall out of compliance?

Local water treatment plant

Where does your community’s water come from?

Where is it stored?

How often is it tested for purity?

What safeguards are in place to prevent tampering with the water supply?

Local public health department

Does this department have an STD clinic?

In addition to testing, does the department offer treatment of one party or both parties?

What is the most frequently diagnosed STD?

A pediatrician’s office

What is your policy on accepting patients who refuse vaccinations?

What are the most common reasons parents decline vaccinations for their children in this particular office?

What is the policy at this office for giving antibiotics to treat viral syndromes?

Now, look at the site you visited through the eyes of the public health nurse (PHN). Imagine you are the PHN and have been asked to investigate an outbreak at this facility.

What questions would you ask?

What suggestions could you make to avoid a disease outbreak at the facility?

What would your role as a change agent be for any deficiencies you find in your on-site inspection?

Our “world” starts with our own community, county, and state, then moves out in concentric rings from that point to include our country and eventually the world. Disease is transmitted from person to person through direct contact, or from a source such as a vector or contaminated water through a variety of means, such as flood waters or even terrorist actions. Individuals with limited or no knowledge of safe sex methods may have unprotected sexual relations and knowingly or unknowingly transmit disease to their partners, then to their partners’ partners, and on and on. Often it is the role of the public health nurse to investigate a disease outbreak, contain it, and then educate others so that the same situation doesn’t happen again.

By Day 3

Post your brief description and pictures of the site you visited. Share the answers you were given to the questions you posed. Then, respond to the above prompts through the eyes of a PHN asked to investigate an outbreak at this facility.

Support your response with references from the professional nursing literature. Week 3 Discussion-Preventing Disease in Communities

ADDITIONAL INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE CLASS

Discussion Questions (DQ)

• Initial responses to the DQ should address all components of the questions asked, include a minimum of one scholarly source, and be at least 250 words.
• Successful responses are substantive (i.e., add something new to the discussion, engage others in the discussion, well-developed idea) and include at least one scholarly source.
• One or two sentence responses, simple statements of agreement or “good post,” and responses that are off-topic will not count as substantive. Substantive responses should be at least 150 words.
• I encourage you to incorporate the readings from the week (as applicable) into your responses.

Weekly Participation

• Your initial responses to the mandatory DQ do not count toward participation and are graded separately.
• In addition to the DQ responses, you must post at least one reply to peers (or me) on three separate days, for a total of three replies.
• Participation posts do not require a scholarly source/citation (unless you cite someone else’s work).
• Part of your weekly participation includes viewing the weekly announcement and attesting to watching it in the comments. These announcements are made to ensure you understand everything that is due during the week.

APA Format and Writing Quality

• Familiarize yourself with APA format and practice using it correctly. It is used for most writing assignments for your degree. Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for APA paper templates, citation examples, tips, etc. Points will be deducted for poor use of APA format or absence of APA format (if required).
• Cite all sources of information! When in doubt, cite the source. Paraphrasing also requires a citation.
• I highly recommend using the APA Publication Manual, 6th edition.

Use of Direct Quotes

• I discourage overutilization of direct quotes in DQs and assignments at the Masters’ level and deduct points accordingly.
• As Masters’ level students, it is important that you be able to critically analyze and interpret information from journal articles and other resources. Simply restating someone else’s words does not demonstrate an understanding of the content or critical analysis of the content.
• It is best to paraphrase content and cite your source.

 

LopesWrite Policy

• For assignments that need to be submitted to LopesWrite, please be sure you have received your report and Similarity Index (SI) percentage BEFORE you do a “final submit” to me.
• Once you have received your report, please review it. This report will show you grammatical, punctuation, and spelling errors that can easily be fixed. Take the extra few minutes to review instead of getting counted off for these mistakes.
• Review your similarities. Did you forget to cite something? Did you not paraphrase well enough? Is your paper made up of someone else’s thoughts more than your own?
• Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for tips on improving your paper and SI score.

Late Policy

• The university’s policy on late assignments is 10% penalty PER DAY LATE. This also applies to late DQ replies.
• Please communicate with me if you anticipate having to submit an assignment late. I am happy to be flexible, with advance notice. We may be able to work out an extension based on extenuating circumstances.
• If you do not communicate with me before submitting an assignment late, the GCU late policy will be in effect.
• I do not accept assignments that are two or more weeks late unless we have worked out an extension.
• As per policy, no assignments are accepted after the last day of class. Any assignment submitted after midnight on the last day of class will not be accepted for grading.

Communication

• Communication is so very important. There are multiple ways to communicate with me: 
  • Questions to Instructor Forum: This is a great place to ask course content or assignment questions. If you have a question, there is a good chance one of your peers does as well. This is a public forum for the class.
  • Individual Forum: This is a private forum to ask me questions or send me messages. This will be checked at least once every 24 hours.