Posted: July 8th, 2016

Gaps in care or social determinants result in poor outcomes.

Gaps in care

Collaborate with professionals across the health care system to find the gaps in care or social determinants resulting in poor outcomes.

Begin to take the lead to advocate and collaborate for the population at risk.

During this week of your practicum, identify a population at risk in your community that you will discuss for the next six weeks and use to create a Population-Based Nursing Care Project.

Some examples of population health problems are obesity, teen pregnancy, diabetes, infectious diseases, and childhood immunization. The gap in care. Discuss with your team the prevalent health problems in your practice and community.

How can you address these health problems at the population level? Some possible resources to clarify the health problem include your local department of health, other professionals and agencies involved with the population at risk, and community groups.

Read more about populations in your textbook. gap in care

Please address the following in your discussions:

Briefly describe the community where you live and the setting in which you practice.
What health problems are prevalent in your practice and/or in your community?

For the Population-Based Nursing Care Project, choose a population at risk. Describe the health problem and specific population.

Help each other refine and clarify the health problem. gap in care
Support your response with references from the professional nursing literature.

As PHNs, we work with populations in the community. For this practicum, you will choose a population from your community and a health issue that will be used for your project.

If you have difficulty choosing a population, look at the sections in the book discussing “Vulnerable Populations.”

That may help you decide on a population that interests you. Also, remember that this project is a community-based project. T

hat means it should be a project that works with populations in the community and not one which is clinically orientated.

Your project should focus on a primary or secondary level of prevention. Once a person already has a disease (e.g., Diabetes, CHF, mental health issues), the level of prevention becomes tertiary.

If you need some additional information on the levels of prevention, see this webpage:

That is not to say this level is not important; it’s just not the focus of this class.

As the weeks go by, you will explore this group, develop interventions for health concerns, and evaluate programs. Here is a list of some of the more interesting topics previous students in this class took on:

Sex trafficking prevention
Marketing practices of Big Tobacco to teens.
Prevention of Alcohol use among teens.

Prenatal care for minority women.
Neural tube defect prevention.

Prevention of substance abuse in populations with mental health issues.
Cancer screenings among minorities (e.g., Breast, cervical…)
Access to care
Health literacy improvement
Access to nutritious food.
STD prevention
Elder abuse prevention
Prevention of heart disease among African Americans
HIV prevention among minorities

Population-Based Nursing Care Project Team Discussion

Post your responses to the Discussion based on the course requirements. Your initial postings must be 250–350 words (not including the full references). Keep your responses succinct.

Your written assignments must follow APA guidelines. Be sure to support your work with specific citations from this week’s Learning Resources.

Other scholarly sources may also be used to support your work. Refer to the APA Publication Manual to ensure your in-text citations and reference list are correct.

Please address the following in your discussions: Briefly describe the community where you live and your practice setting.
· What health problems are prevalent in your practice and/or in your community?

· For the Population-Based Nursing Care Project, choose a population at risk. Describe the health problem and specific population.

· Help each other refine and clarify the health problem.
These examples are not the only topics you can use. They are just examples.

However, once you have decided on a population for your project, you will need to focus on one (1) health issue that you feel is of importance in this community.