Assignment: NSGCB 486 Competency 1

Assignment: NSGCB 486 Competency 1

Assignment: NSGCB 486 Competency 1

Assessment Details

Part I: Advocacy Letter

Read the Community Toolbox Chapter 33 Section 1: Writing Letters to Elected Officials from the Community Toolbox: ctb.ku.edu.

Assume you are a public health nurse manager working for an organization in your state that garners support for key public health issues.

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The CEO of your organization has requested that you complete the following:

Identify 1 global health care issue that impacts U.S. health populations in your zip code through law or policy at the state or national level, for which it is crucial that continued funding be approved. Visit the Healthy People 2030 website to help identify an issue.

Research the law or policy to determine:

The main purpose of the selected law or policy

The main population affected by this law or policy

How this law or policy affects the population it is intended to serve

The impact of current domestic and global issues on this law or policy

Predict the need for advocacy (support of and strategic approach) for the selected health issue using data from a Community Health Needs Assessment (CHNA) report from a public hospital in your zip code and ISP reports.

Investigate your state legislature or US Congress websites to determine if there is pending action or established policy supporting the identified health issue.

Identify 1 state or federal legislator representing your selected zip code. Use your state legislature directory or the US Congress Directory.

Determine the legislator’s support for the health issue in your community. If necessary, call the legislator’s office and ask an aide what actions are being taken on behalf of the community on that issue.

Write a letter of advocacy to the legislator regarding the health issue on behalf of your organization. Use the 4-paragraph format described in the blog post:

Acknowledge the legislator.

Write a compelling argument about the importance of the health issue in the local community.

Provide data supporting your proposed strategy for the issues.

Establish yourself as a professional ally for the legislator.

Format your assignment as a concise 500-word letter. Edit fiercely!

Include a reference page for the CHNA, ISP, legislative research, and legislator.

Note: You do not need to send the letter to meet the requirements of this assignment.

Part II: Community Education

In this part of the assignment, you will demonstrate your ability to analyze your local community. You will research an agency you choose, with a focus on current community needs and communicable diseases. You will prepare an outline for a program you might offer to the chosen agency. For example, during the COVID pandemic, you would focus on teaching community members how to mitigate the virus and prevent further spread. In this assignment, you educate an identified population about all local communicable diseases, such as TB, hepatitis, and STDs, and chronic illnesses, such as diabetes.

Step 1: Examine the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT analysis) for 2 different government agencies in relation to communicable diseases and chronic illnesses. (Note: These agencies do not include the agency with whom you will work in Step 2 of this assessment.)

Research 2 different government agencies to understand and learn about their missions. Select the agencies from the following:

Homeless shelters

Senior centers

Childcare facilities

Schools

Places of worship

Community organizations

Jails or prisons

Mental health facilities

National Council on Aging

Community clinics

Develop questions and methods for data collection at each agency.

Assess how each agency currently manages and addresses communicable diseases and chronic illnesses, including vaccination administration.

Conduct a SWOT analysis for each of the agencies:

Assess internal strengths within each agency in relation to its mission.

Assess internal weaknesses faced by each agency in relation to its mission.

Assess external environmental threats facing the agency.

Assess external opportunities available to the agency.

Prepare a 350-word summary of your SWOT analysis.

Step 2: Choose a local community agency with whom you might work. Examples include, but are not limited to:

Elder day health

Child daycare

School setting

Place of worship

Community clinic

Health agency

Homeless shelter or service

Red Cross

Insurance company case manager or public health nurse

Prison

Conduct a SWOT analysis for your chosen agency.

Prepare a 350-word summary of your SWOT analysis.

Step 3: Recommend an appropriate disease prevention teaching project that could be offered by your chosen agency for the local community.

Summarize the public health issues facing the selected agency you selected and researched.

Select 1 issue and prepare an outline of the problem or issue faced.

Explain how your selected agency could address the issue.

Determine an appropriate teaching project to develop and potentially implement.

Prepare a 500-word outline and summary of the disease prevention teaching project that could be offered by your agency. You will continue this teaching project in Competency 2.

Submit your assessment.

Resources

Assignment: NSGCB 486 Competency 1 Sample

Competency 1

Advocacy Letter

The Honorable Kathy Hochul

Governor of New York State

NYS State Capitol Building

Albany, NY 12224

Honorable Governor Kathy Hochul

            As a nurse practitioner working with individuals from vulnerable societies in America, I am writing this mail to express my strongest concern and opposition to revise the requirement that a recipient of a grand under the High Obesity Program be in a county with an adult obesity rate of more than 40% up from the current 35%. The proposal has been made under the legislation H.R.5625-Halt Obesity in America Act, which has been referred to the Subcommittee on Health(Rep. Jeffries, 2021). Revising the requirement would imply that most of the counties with high obesity rates among adults (35%-39.9%) will not benefit from the community and population-targeted programs to address obesity and its associated health challenges.

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            As examples, most counties in the State of New York will suffer if the proposed amendment passes. For instance, 11 counties in the state will lose the benefits of the High Obesity Program should the current proposed legislation be adopted. These states include Cattaraugus with adult obesity rate of 38.2%, Chenango (38.1%), Clinton (36.7%), Delaware (35.9%), Fulton (38.3%), Lewis (38.2%), Livingston (35.6%), Madison (37.2%), Wyoming (38.2%), Washington (38.7%), Sulivan (38.0%), and Steuben (35.2%). It is surprising that rather than expanding its benefits to a larger population, the proposed legislation will only benefit three counties in New York state where the adult obesity rate is above 40%. These counties include Franklin, Wayne, and St. Lawrence counties(New York State Department of Health, 2021).

            Obesity is currently the leading public health concern in not only New York and the United States but mot of the global nations too. Statistics show that more than a quarter of the adults in New York (27.6%) have obesity. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that obesity prevalence rate in America stood at 41.9% between 2017 and 2020. The obesity rates have been rising significantly over the decades as seen from the statistics that its rate was 30.5% in 1999-2000 rising to 41.9% in 2017-2020. Besides, the prevalence of severe obesity rose from 4.7% to 9.2% in the same period. Evidence has linked obesity to a range of health problems(CDC, 2022). They include stroke, heart disease, type 2 diabetes mellitus and specific types of cancer.

            Community-targeted programs such as the High Obesity Program play a crucial role in addressing the problem of obesity. Its initiatives such as health education, supporting screening and early treatments for obesity-related conditions, and linking patients to social support groups improve the health and wellbeing of community members. It is well known that lack of awareness predisposes most to unhealthy lifestyles and behaviors that cause obesity. Therefore, raising the current requirement for eligible counties for the program from 35% to 40% will be detrimental to not only the state of New York but also to other states too. It will increase the proportion of the populations affected by obesity and its associated benefits. The programs will only benefit few in the community, widening the existing disparities in health in the population. Consequently, it is my request that you rally other legislators to oppose the H.R.5625-Halt Obesity in America Act.

References

CDC. (2022, July 20). Obesity is a Common, Serious, and Costly Disease. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. https://www.cdc.gov/obesity/data/adult.html

New York State Department of Health. (2021). Prevalence of Obesity among New York Adults by County, BRFSS 2018. Microsoft Word – IFA_Obesity_2018_final (ny.gov)

Rep. Jeffries, H. S. [D-N.-8. (2021, October 20). H.R.5625 – 117th Congress (2021-2022): Halt Obesity in America Act (10/20/2021) [Legislation]. http://www.congress.gov/

Part II: Community Education

            The selected government agencies for analysis in this section are the Federal Bureau of Prisons and the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness. The Federal Bureau of Prisons is an agency that was started in 1930 to ensure more human care and progress for the federal inmates. The agency exists to professionalize the prison services and ensuring consistency and centralization of the administration of the federal prisons. The United States Interagency Council on Homelessness is a government agency that was established to end homelessness in America. It exists to create and accelerate the implementation of the Federal Strategic Plan to Prevent and End Homelessness(bop.gov, n.d.; usich.gov, n.d.).

            The United States Interagency Council on Homelessness has several strengths. One of them is the agency’s focus on racial equity to ensure individuals from all racial backgrounds benefit from its programs. It also has the strength of decriminalizing homelessness as a way of ending it in the societies. It also adopts evidence-based practices to ensure soundness of the adopted interventions. The organization supports inclusion of people with experiences of homelessness to ensure the adoption of meaningful decisions to address the problem. The Federal Bureau of Prisons has strengths that include continually striving to provide prisons and community-based environments that are humane, cot-efficient, safe, and secure(bop.gov, n.d.; usich.gov, n.d.). It also has an outstanding public administration system that offers best correctional services and programs in the United States.

            The two agencies have some weaknesses. For example, the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness has been unable to end the homelessness problem in America despite its strategic interventions and proposals. On the other hand, the Federal Bureau of Prisons continually suffers from problems such as funding gaps, staff retention, and lagging in the adoption of state-of-the-art technologies to enhance process and system efficiencies. These agencies also experience some threats from their external environments. For example, the increasing number of homeless populations and ever-ending crime rates in the American societies act as source of threats to both agencies. Economic challenges such as global recession also affects the funding of these agencies, which affect their performance and implementation of their strategic plans. Some of the opportunities for the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness include partnerships with other governmental and private agencies and learning from best practices to address homelessness in other developed countries(Khurshid &Gadnis, 2019). Similarly, the Federal Bureau of Prisons should leverage on the existing technologies to enhance the efficiency of service delivery to the population.

Step 2: Community Agency

            The chosen community agency that I am likely to work with is a community clinic. The clinic offers preventive, curative, and health promotion services. The community has several strengths. One of them is that it serves a diverse community. It addresses the needs of a community with individuals from different backgrounds. The diversity increases the need for the adoption of culturally sensitive interventions to meet its needs. The other strength is the healthcare providers’ dedication to the use of best practices. The staff working in the community clinic continually strive to utilize evidence-based interventions to achieve optimum outcomes such as safety, quality, and efficiency in addressing community needs. The other strength is teamwork. The staff in the community clinic embrace interprofessional collaboration in the provision of patient care services. The collaboration ensures the delivery of care that meets the prioritized needs of the diverse population in the community.

            The community clinic has some weaknesses. One of them is the lack of defined hierarchy in leadership and management. The lack affects the coordination of its activities for efficiency and quality outcomes. The other weakness is the limited nature of its services. The community clinic does not have a physician available at all the time, which affect the access to high-quality care for the community members. One of the threats facing the community clinic is the emergence of new health problems. Complex health problems such as Covid19 placed immense pressure on the organization’s resources. The existing resources and infrastructure are inadequate to respond to emerging and unforeseen needs in the community. The other threat is the changes in the disease burdens in the community. Currently, the rate and risk of chronic conditions among the population is rising at alarming rate. This can be seen from the high proportion of the population affected by conditions such as hypertension, obesity, heart disease, and diabetes among others(Petrie & Jones, 2019). These changes demand the need for highly responsive healthcare systems, which are not evident in the community clinic.

            The community can explore some opportunities to overcome the above challenges. One of them is leveraging on health technologies to enhance healthcare service delivery to the populations. Technologies such as telehealth may be adopted to promote efficiency and quality in service delivery (Bala et al., 2019; LeRouge et al., 2019). The other opportunity is increasing skill mix among the staff. The skill mix will enhance the delivery of population-appropriate care services to those in need.

Step 3: Disease Prevention Teaching Project

The community clinic currently faces a range of population health issues. First, the number of patients seen in the facility due to cardiac problems such as hypertension has been rising over the years. The risk of patients seen in the facility developing complications such as stroke and heart disease has also been high. The other issue is the rise in overweight and obesity among the community members the clinic serves. Overweight and obesity increase the risk of complications such as diabetes mellitus, hypertension and some cancers (Bala et al., 2019). The last issue is the rise in substance abuse problems in the community.

            An issue that should be prioritized in addressing from the above is overweight and obesity. Overweight and obesity are crucial health problems that increase the risk of other health problems faced by the community members. For example, most of the rising rates of hypertension and diabetes among the population are attributed to overweight and obesity. Adopting interventions to address these problems could lower the risk of comorbidities such as hypertension, diabetes, and stroke among others. Unhealthy lifestyles and behaviors largely contribute to the development of overweight and obesity issues (Kahan & Manson, 2019). For example, lack of physical exercises and unhealthy dietary practices lead in the development of these problems. Therefore, the community clinic should adopt evidence-based interventions to address them.

            An effective way in which the community clinic could address overweight and obesity is by providing community-targeted health education programs. Health education is a primary prevention approach that increases the awareness level of the community members about their health risks and how to prevent them. The community education programs should focus on the importance of prevention strategies such healthy diets, avoiding smoking and alcohol abuse, engaging in active physical activity, and utilizing the available screening services in the community clinic (Salam et al., 2020). Health education will empower the community members to embrace sustainable interventions for their optimum health and wellbeing.

            An appropriate teaching project to address overweight and obesity would target overweight and obese individuals who visit the community clinic. The project would focus on the self-management behaviors against overweight and obesity. The patient diagnosed with overweight and obesity would be provided with health education about the causes, risks, and management of their weight problems. They would also be assisted in selecting a healthy diet plan and physical activity routine to promote healthy weight loss (Maula et al., 2020). The patients would also be linked with the community support resources to help them overcome their problems.

            The implementation of the educational project will be collaborative. The staff in the community clinic would be involved in the entire process, including needs assessment, planning, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation. They will also be trained on the use of best practices to achieve the desired lifestyle and behavioral change in the community. Training will minimize the risk of resistance to the proposed initiative by them. Feedback will be sought from the staff to inform the improvement strategies for the project. The use of these strategies are crucial in ensuring sustainability of the project interventions in the clinic (Khandelwal, 2020; Yang et al., 2019). It will also influence the adoption of project’s best practices as part of the routines to patient care in the facility.

References

Bala, N., Price, S. N., Horan, C. M., Gerber, M. W., & Taveras, E. M. (2019). Use of Telehealth to Enhance Care in a Family-Centered Childhood Obesity Intervention. Clinical Pediatrics, 58(7), 789–797. https://doi.org/10.1177/0009922819837371

bop.gov. (n.d.). BOP: Agency Pillars. Retrieved April 18, 2023, from https://www.bop.gov/about/agency/agency_pillars.jsp

Kahan, S., & Manson, J. E. (2019). Obesity Treatment, Beyond the Guidelines: Practical Suggestions for Clinical Practice. JAMA, 321(14), 1349–1350. https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2019.2352

Khandelwal, S. (2020). Obesity in midlife: Lifestyle and dietary strategies. Climacteric, 23(2), 140–147. https://doi.org/10.1080/13697137.2019.1660638

Khurshid, A., &Gadnis, A. (2019). Using Blockchain to Create Transaction Identity for Persons Experiencing Homelessness in America: Policy Proposal. JMIR Research Protocols, 8(3), e10654. https://doi.org/10.2196/10654

LeRouge, C., Durneva, P., Sangameswaran, S., & Gloster, A.-M. (2019). Design Guidelines for a Technology-Enabled Nutrition Education Program to Support Overweight and Obese Adolescents: Qualitative User-Centered Design Study. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 21(7), e14430. https://doi.org/10.2196/14430

Maula, A., Kai, J., Woolley, A. K., Weng, S., Dhalwani, N., Griffiths, F. E., Khunti, K., & Kendrick, D. (2020). Educational weight loss interventions in obese and overweight adults with type 2 diabetes: A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. Diabetic Medicine, 37(4), 623–635. https://doi.org/10.1111/dme.14193

Petrie, K. J., & Jones, A. S. K. (2019). Coping with chronic illness. In The Cambridge handbook of psychology, health and medicine, 3rd ed (pp. 110–114). Cambridge University Press.

Salam, R. A., Padhani, Z. A., Das, J. K., Shaikh, A. Y., Hoodbhoy, Z., Jeelani, S. M., Lassi, Z. S., & Bhutta, Z. A. (2020). Effects of Lifestyle Modification Interventions to Prevent and Manage Child and Adolescent Obesity: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Nutrients, 12(8), Article 8. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu12082208

usich.gov. (n.d.). About USICH | United States Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH). Retrieved April 18, 2023, from https://www.usich.gov/about-usich/

Yang, Z., Phung, H., Hughes, A.-M., Sherwood, S., Harper, E., & Kelly, P. (2019). Trends in overweight and obesity by socioeconomic status in Year 6 school children, Australian Capital Territory, 2006–2018. BMC Public Health, 19(1), 1512. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-019-7645-9