Assignment: Barriers Within Communities

Assignment: Barriers Within Communities

Assignment: Barriers Within Communities

Eliminating Barriers Within Communities in the United States

1. Respond to the prompts below in full sentences.  Be sure to use standard English grammar and spelling:

• As a community health nurse, you work with migrant workers in your community. Access to health care in the rural areas of the United States is a major concern.
  • Discuss possible barriers to health care this population group may face.
  • How will you intervene to eliminate or at least minimize these barriers?

    What could Mr. Fuller’s vital signs indicate?

    What nursing interventions are indicated? What should the nurse assess in Mr. Fuller at this time?

    What clinical signs associated with an elevated temperature might the nurse assess?

    If Mr. Fuller’s fever persists and increases, what might the nurse suspect is happening, and what might be done?

    Classroom Activity 4-1

    Critical thinking gives you the power to make sense of something by deliberately choosing how to respond to events that you encounter. You take in information, examine and ask questions about it, look at new perspectives, and identify a plan. You use problem-solving and decision-making strategies.

    Choose a decision that you need to make soon and write it down. What goal or desired outcomes do you seek from this decision? Prioritize goals or desired outcomes and write them down. Identify who and what will be affected by your decision and indicate how your decision will affect them. Identify any available options you might have. Taking into account and evaluating your information, identify a plan or decide what you are going to do. After you have made your decision, evaluate the result.

    Classroom Activity 4-2

    You are receiving morning reports on the following patients from the night-shift nurse. After receiving the report, which patient would you choose to see first? As you make your decision, think about your thought processes and how you made your decision.

    a. A woman who is scheduled to have a biopsy on a breast lump this morning and who is scared and crying

    b. An 85-year-old man who was admitted during the night because of increased confusion who remains disoriented this morning

    c. A woman who had lung surgery the previous day and who has two chest tubes in place with minimal drainage

    d. A man who is scheduled to have a colon resection in 2 hours and is complaining of chills

    Answer: You should have answered the client who is scheduled for surgery and is exhibiting symptoms of infection. This patient needs to be assessed immediately for infection and the doctor notified. If an infection is present, the surgery needs to be postponed. The other patients are stable, and their needs do not have to be addressed immediately.