Discussion Question: Please review the course objectives stated in the Syllabus. Conduct a self-reflection of your learning in the course and how you personally have met each of the course objectives.

RESPONSE 1

My project was adult obesity, seeing that one in three American adults are obese and that it was a subject from the 2020 healthy people list, it was a subject that was relevant (Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, 2020). I used my nursing skills to help develop my project to help prevent illness, promote health and the health maintenance of my family member that are age 60 and older. I utilized on line information on obesity and even incorporated the use of a popular fitness app to help assess their progress.  I did have to provide instruction on how to use the fitness which did add some extra time to the presentation.

Analyzing the community was made much easier by Covid since I had to focus on my immediate family so the gathering of information on the community was readily available. I was able to put together a project that was easily understood, easy to follow, with a simple well-developed plan to help improve the overall health of my target audience. With my target audience being my parents, in-laws, aunts and uncles all over the age of 60 motivated me to create a presentation that would be effective.

When it came time to implement my teaching project disaster struck, my 14-year-old daughter was released from the hospital and my household had been exposed to Covid. Luckily I was able to collaborate with my oldest daughter, who came home from college for the weekend to present my project with zoom. My daughter was able to connect her computer to my parent’s TV and help with the technological issues in person. She was able to gather every one’s phones prior to me starting the presentation and load the fitness apps onto all of their phones. She was also there to help all of her elderly family members sync their calendars since we all have iPhones in our family. This last-minute collaboration saved my project and since my wife, stepson daughter and I were quarantined for safety it was the only way to present my project and keep everyone safe. I recorded my power point, infographic, sent screen shots of me teaching how to use the fitness app and showing how to set up reminders in the phone calendar for the completion of my project.

After doing this entire project I have learned to appreciate the amount of work that goes into community health teaching and awareness projects. I have also learned that I am built for clinical nursing, but truly appreciate the work that public health nurses do.

Reference

Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, 2020

            https://healtyhpeople.gov/2020/about/foundation-health-measures/determinants-of-health

RESPONSE 2

I have to say that Community Health Nursing II has been the most personally satisfying course in this program thus far for me. As an indigenous nurse, I am viscerally aware of the social determinants of health that impact the Tipai community of San Diego. Developing the skills to apply a knowledge base of community health nursing to the creation and implementation of an educational project with a focus on mental health to this vulnerable target community is deeply fulfilling. This course has provided the space and direction for me to demonstrate use of information technology in data gathering and analysis of the Tipai community in order to assess their needs and identify effective, appropriate, culturally competent and evidence-based interventions. The course materials outlined how to analyze my community assessment in order to plan a health teaching project that speaks to the deficit in culturally competent mental health support, and specifically address ways to manage historical trauma (Clark, 2015).

One of the primary Community Health Nursing II course objectives was to create and implement an educational project that can be utilized by community health nurses to improve the health status of the selected target community. I was personally able to collaborate with community partners such as Frontline Medics (an indigenous collective of medical professionals), Brujitxs del Barrio (an indigenous owned and operated herbalist collective), and Kumeyaay Community College educators to design a presentation geared toward improving mental health among the Tipai community (Melnyk & Fineout-Overholt, 2015). Collectively, and inclusive of data gathered through personal interviews with Tipai youth, the educational project was designed to address three aspects of mental health.

The first aspect of the presentation provided patient education on the nature and manifestations of historical trauma. Attendees of the educational presentation indicated that they gained new vocabulary by which to discuss their thoughts and feelings, as well as a deeper understanding of how their historical experiences contribute to feelings of anxiety, depression and grief. The second aspect of the presentation discussed the stigma attached to mental health and mental health services as barriers to receiving diagnosis and treatment for mood disorders and suicidal ideation. Attendees reinforced the need for culturally competent care, inclusive of Tipai language and cultural understandings. Lastly, the presentation discussed herbal support for the physical body while processing these critical thoughts and feelings. Our bodies over-produce the stress hormone Cortisol when in chronic states of anxiety, fear and grief (Adakai et al., 2018). This can have adverse effects on overall health (Adakai et al., 2018). The herbal support tea was created to support the nervous system and flush the lymphatic system while the patients are processing their feelings. Some of the herbs included in the tea are indigenous to this territory, and their Tipai names were used in the educational presentation.
Ultimately, I am very pleased with the outcome of this presentation, and look forward to offering it in a variety of Tipai settings. As I have mentioned before, there are 18 reservations of sovereign Tipai nations in San Diego County and Baja California, so there is opportunity for further presentations to be offered. I look forward to developing this teaching more.

References

Adakai, M., Sandoval-Rosario, M., Xu, F., Aseret-Manygoats, T., Allison, M., Greenlund, K., & Barbour, K. (2018). Health Disparities Among American Indians/Alaska Natives. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr.

Clark, M. (2015). Population and community health nursing (6th ed., p. 337). Pearson Education.

Melnyk, B., & Fineout-Overholt, E. (2015). Evidence-based practice in nursing and healthcare (3rd ed.). Wolters Kluwer.