NUR 300 Nursing Transition

My health

My chosen area for this report is Newark, New Jersey and my chosen topic is “My health”. Being a community nurse, it is important to have an insight to the health status of the community and the predisposing factors posing a threat to the health of the community, such as the climate, air quality and the water quality. Some of the data obtained from the (EPA, 2017) are of major concern as well as surprising, such as the low birth weight in New Jersey, the rate of mortality and the cancer risk. Data shows that the average low birth weight in Essex, New Jersey is 96.45 per live 1000 births in comparison to the national data which is about 79.98 (EPA, 2017)  . This situation is alarming as the infants born with low birth weight are likely to face development problems in terms of physical and mental health problems. Apart from this, such conditions also exert significant emotional and financial toll leading to increased medical costs. Another alarming situation that has been observed is the high infect mortality rate. It is unfortunate to know that currently two-third infants death occur within the first 28 days. Infant mortality has been found to be due to the following factors- low birth weight, about which we have already discussed, sudden infant death syndrome and short gestation period. There are certain environmental factors responsible for the burden of disease in this region. As per the air quality index, the toxic air pollutants are posing some serious health risks such as cancer and other birth defects (EPA, 2017) . As per the 2014 NATA data, about 16 millions of people in a population are vulnerable to cancer due to air pollution (EPA, 2017) . Additionally, we have also learnt about the toxic release inventory that tracks the management of the toxic hazardous chemicals in the environment. The total off site waste disposal in Newark has been reported to be about 424.9 million lbs (EPA, 2017). Hence, all these data gives us information about the current environmental status of this region, which can help us out with the levels of the preventive measures that has to be taken.

Role of the community nurse

It is known that low births are mainly caused due to exposure to tobacco smoke, other pollutants, stress, hypertension, at the time of pregnancy. Hence, nurses as a part of the community should try to educate people about smoking cessation and the harm caused due to passive smoking, intake of healthy and nutritious food and proper follow up with the doctor at the time of pregnancy (Kangasniemi et al., 2017). Being a community nurse, it is necessary to have a close look at the environmental factors responsible for the great burden of disease like cancer and birth defects. Nurses can arrange for awareness campaigns to educate the citizens about the current environmental risks and the ways to mitigate them (Wilson et al., 2014). People should be made aware of the proper means of disposal of the hazardous wastes that can not only disturb the cleanliness of the locality but can also be a source of the spread of diseases (Kangasniemi et al., 2017). In conclusion, it can be said that, a nurse has to work in frontline with the doctors looking after the health and the wellbeing of the people, hence it is their role to look after the various environmental and behavioural factors responsible for ill health.

References

EPA., (2017). My health. Access date: 4.12.2018. Retrieved from: https://www.epa.gov/myenvironment

EPA., (2017). Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) .Access date: 4.12.2018. Retrieved from: https://www.epa.gov/toxics-release-inventory-tri-program

Kangasniemi, M., Kallio, H., & Pietilä, A. M. (2014). Towards environmentally responsible nursing: a critical interpretive synthesis. Journal of advanced nursing, 70(7), 1465-1478.

Wilson, L., Harper, D. C., Tami-Maury, I., Zarate, R., Salas, S., Farley, J., … & Ventura, C. (2012). Global health competencies for nurses in the Americas. Journal of Professional Nursing, 28(4), 213-222.