Community Health Nursing places an emphasis on the role of nursing on

public health sciences and heavily focuses on the promotion and

maintenance of healthy communities through review of at-risk populations in
communities around us. This course also focused on the progression of
healthcare provided in the community as years passed and discussed how
different legislative pieces affected said care. The nurses role in this process
is also discussed in lecture. This is particularly relevant when discussing
factors such as the environment and how it effects the population living in
that sub-environment. Many rules and regulations created by the
government for businesses have the ability to affect the health of
communities. In this course, we were taught to apply the nursing process
and epidemiological methods to describe the state of health of a community.
We also discussed cultural and poverty patterns in a community and
determined their impact on the health-related goals of the community.
Lastly, we were taught about global health concerns including terrorism and
disease spread/ prevention plans. As a part of this course I also completed an
emergency management course through FEMA for
which I earned the FEMA
Disaster Preparedness
Certification. This enables us to
be informed on actions and
responsibilities of ourselves and
other nurses during a disaster,
natural or man-made. I also
contracted this course for honors
credit and worked with the
Mahoning County Emergency Management director to present on the specific
functions of our county and healthcare entities within it in the case of a
disaster in our area. Lastly, I joined a group of students in my class to
conduct an analysis of Medina, Ohio and ultimately create our first
community care plan which details ways to improve community health of the
Medina Community.