Community Health Nursing Surprises

My first clinical rotation for the semester is community health. Today was one of our two orientation days, and we spent the day visiting a few of the different sites we can choose from. I have been pretty negative about this semester's clinicals, thinking that this "just isn't my thing." Today really surprised me though. Eventually, when that inevitable burnout comes, I could see myself working in some kind of community health nursing role. I have been able to establish a couple friendships with my clients in home health, and today I could see how that allowed me to be more open to the sites. I also found myself getting excited as I identified the many similarities the services provided had to my experiences in Uganda. Although the context and intensity of the settings are drastically different, the principles for community health are the exact same. Immunizations, poverty, preventative health, communicable diseases, prenatal care, and on and on....nurses in both the United States and Uganda can have a tremendous impact in these areas.

Another surprising part was the public health nurses' positive and welcoming attitudes at all of the sites-my professors included in that. They really are excited about the work they are doing, and their compassion for their clients was very evident. They face challenging situations, and yet they expressed hope for the future of health care. The director at one of the sites mentioned this video from Healthiest Nation. It's a short and basic video, but it causes you to shift your focus away from the more expensive side of nursing that occurs in hospitals. Our life expectancy in the United States is actually decreasing for the first time in years due to health problems like obesity, hypertension, diabetes-all of which are highly preventable with public health.
I thought this course and clinical would not help me develop skills useful in a hospital setting. However, today helped me realize that I can take part in public health by educating the patients while they are in the hospital. It's the perfect opportunity to assess and intervene to help a person's social, financial, environmental and psychological health.

As the nurses we met today pointed out-it's up to my generation of nurses to change the focus to the health of the community. For now, I'm just relieved that I can actually look forward to learning something useful this semester.