Assignment: Premature Death

All populations have some risk, but risks for multiple illness conditions and premature death are much higher for specific populations. Community health nurses need to explore the multiple factors that contribute to health disparities among vulnerable portions of the population. Vulnerability is the predisposition or susceptibility to injury, illness, or premature death. To improve health status and reduce risk in high-risk populations, nurses must work with communities to identify and change, where possible, the factors that contribute to the populations’ vulnerability (Maurer & Smith 2013 paga 398).

The awareness of groups “at risk” for poor health differs from vulnerable populations. “A population at risk is a population with common identified risk factor exposure that poses a threat to health (Stanhope & Lancaster, 2014 pg 189). For instance, a population at risk for cardiovascular disease consists of all adults who are overweight and hypertensive.

Assignment: Premature Death

Assignment: Premature Death

A population at risk is characterized by homogeneously high level of exposure to a single risk factor and all individuals in an “at risk” group can potentially develop an adverse health condition due to some risk factor. For example, smoking, which places all smokers at risk for developing lung cancer.

A vulnerable population is a “subgroup of the population that is more likely to develop health conditions for which they are at risk, which makes them more vulnerable” (Stanhope & Lancaster). For example, an individual with chronic condition such as cancer may already have difficulty managing his/her condition and have less physical ability to cope with stress than someone without such condition, thus putting them at risk for developing other comorbidities. Therefore, vulnerability results from the combined effects of limited resources, which create a more hazardous situation (Stanhope & Lancaster.

Living in a community with limited resources affects vulnerability in many ways. Those who are poor are faced with many risk factors that cause chronic stress. For Example, violence, barriers to health care and bills. Thus impacting their abilities to effectively respond to stressful situations. Lack of knowledge, resources, skills and language barriers can further negatively impact the ability to overcome stress producing situations. The goal for nurse is to represent vulnerable population and help them solve problems and develop solutions for their situations. For example, elderly groups, they are vulnerable to emotional, physical health and socioeconomic problems. Those who are mentally and physically disable and do not speak English and are financially burden all need assistance to at take advantage of and utilize services and programs that may benefit them. In the role of advocacy, nurses should collaborate with the elderly and develop understanding of their values and perception and help the achieve independence through effective education and access to resources.

Maurer, F., Smith, C. (201). Community/Public Health Nursing Practice, 5th Edition. [VitalSource Bookshelf Online]. Retrieved from http://evolveebooks.elsevier.com/#/books/978-1-4557-0762-1/

Stanhope, M. & Lancaster, J. (2014). Public Health Nursing: Population-Centered care in the community (8th ed). Retrieved from http://books.google.com

You must proofread your paper. But do not strictly rely on your computer’s spell-checker and grammar-checker; failure to do so indicates a lack of effort on your part and you can expect your grade to suffer accordingly. Papers with numerous misspelled words and grammatical mistakes will be penalized. Read over your paper – in silence and then aloud – before handing it in and make corrections as necessary. Often it is advantageous to have a friend proofread your paper for obvious errors. Handwritten corrections are preferable to uncorrected mistakes.

Use a standard 10 to 12 point (10 to 12 characters per inch) typeface. Smaller or compressed type and papers with small margins or single-spacing are hard to read. It is better to let your essay run over the recommended number of pages than to try to compress it into fewer pages.

Likewise, large type, large margins, large indentations, triple-spacing, increased leading (space between lines), increased kerning (space between letters), and any other such attempts at “padding” to increase the length of a paper are unacceptable, wasteful of trees, and will not fool your professor.

The paper must be neatly formatted, double-spaced with a one-inch margin on the top, bottom, and sides of each page. When submitting hard copy, be sure to use white paper and print out using dark ink. If it is hard to read your essay, it will also be hard to follow your argument.

 

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.