NCM 104 ASS 1

1. The Leading Health Indicators are a subset of 26 Healthy People 2020 objectives divided into 12
categories. These categories are (1) access to health services, (2) clinical preventive services, (3)
environmental quality, (4) injury and violence, (5) maternal infant and child care, (6) mental health, (7)
nutrition, physical activity, and obesity, (8) oral health, (9) reproductive and sexual health, (10) social
determinants, (11) substance abuse, and (12) tobacco or tobacco use. These objectives were set in order
to explain major health related issues and challenges. They focus on health determinants that improve
the quality of life, healthy habits, and healthy development at all stages of life. The indicators are used
to analyze the country's health, allow cross-sector collaboration, and promote national, state, and
community-level action to improve health.

2. Public health nursing is recognized by the American Nurses Association (ANA) as a specialty with
a specified scope and standard of practice. It is a specialty practice within nursing and public health that
aims to improve the health outcomes of all population. Standards were created to guarantee the
promotion of health, prevention of disease, injury, and early mortality. Competencies are aligned with
the scope and standards of practice for public health nursing. Core Competencies define our skill sets.

3. Health, as defined by the World Health Organization (WHO), is a state of complete physical,
mental, social, emotional, and spiritual well-being and not merely the absence of disease of infirmity.
Different models of health depicts different, but related, ways of representing health and disease.
Models of Health:
(a) Health-Illness Continuum (Neuman) – Degree of client wellness that exists at any point in time,
ranging from an optimal wellness condition, with available energy at its maximum, to death which
represents total energy depletion.
(b) High-Level Wellness Model (Halbert Dunn) – It is oriented toward maximizing the health potential
of an individual. This model requires the individual to maintain a continuum of balance and purposeful
direction within the environment.
(c) Agent-Host-Environment Model (Leavell) – The level of health of an individual or group depends
on the dynamic relationship of the agent, host and environment. Agent refers to any internal or external
factor that disease or illness. Host refers to the person or persons who may be susceptible to a
particular illness or disease. Environment consists of all factors outside of the host
(d) Health-Belief Model – Addresses the relationship between a person’s belief and behaviors. It
provides a way of understanding and predicting how clients will behave in relation to their health and
how they will comply with health care therapies.
(e) Evolutionary-Based Model – Illness and death serves as a evolutionary function. Evolutionary
viability reflects the extent to which individual’s function to promote survival and well-being. The
model interrelates the following elements: life events, life style determinants, evolutionary viability
within the social context, control perceptions, viability emotions, health outcomes
(f) Health Promotion Model – A “complimentary counterpart models of health protection”. Directed at
increasing a client’s level of well being. Explain the reason for client’s participation health-promotion
behaviors. The model focuses on three functions: (1) it identifies factors (demographic and socially)
enhance or decrease the participation in health promotion, (2) it organizes cues into pattern to explain
likelihood of a client’s participation health-promotion behaviors, and (3) it explains the reasons that
individuals engage in health activities.

NCM 106 ASS 1

1. Raw plants (like cannabis or mushrooms), refined plants (like heroin or cocaine), and synthetic
plants (like ecstasy, amphetamine, and New Psychoactive Substances [formerly known as "legal
highs"]) are the three basic forms of drugs. Plant-based drugs such as heroin and cocaine are typically
made in areas where opium and/or coca leaves are grown because the plants require specific conditions
to thrive. Cannabis, on the other hand, can grow anywhere, including indoors, under bright lights and
without soil. While cannabis resin is still imported from North Africa, about 75% of the cannabis
available in the UK is grown in so-called cannabis farms, which are often just ordinary houses.
Amphetamine, ecstasy, and mephedrone are frequently manufactured in underground labs in the
Netherlands, Belgium, and Eastern Europe. Synthetic drugs are often produced in China and the Far
East and sold over the internet.

2. Placebo, according to wikipedia, is a substance or treatment which is designed to have no therapeutic

value. In general, placebos can affect how patients perceive their condition and encourage the body's
chemical processes for relieving pain and a few other symptoms, but have no impact on the disease
itself. The use of placebos in clinical medicine raises ethical concerns, especially if they are disguised
as an active treatment, as this introduces dishonesty into the doctor–patient relationship and bypasses
informed consent. While it was once assumed that this deception was necessary for placebos to have
any effect, there is now evidence that placebos can have effects even when the patient is aware that the
treatment is a placebo.

3. Pharmacoeconomics refers to the scientific discipline that compares the value of one
pharmaceutical drug or drug therapy to another. It is a sub-discipline of health economics. A
pharmacoeconomic research assesses a pharmaceutical product's cost (represented in monetary terms)
and effects (expressed in terms of monetary value, efficacy, or improved quality of life).
Pharmacoeconomic studies help to allocate healthcare resources in the most efficient and scientifically
sound way possible.

4. Ethnopharmacology studies natural medicines derived from plants and other substances that have
been traditionally used by groups of people to treat various human diseases. It can be basically defined
as "the interdisciplinary scientific examination of biologically active substances historically used in
traditional medicine”. Therefore, the ethnopharmacological approach is based on a body of work that
spans several disciplines such as botany, chemistry, and pharmacology.

5. Every culture has its own set of health beliefs that explain what causes illness, how it can be cured
or treated, and who should be involved. The extent to which patients believe patient education is
culturally relevant to them can have a significant impact on how they receive information and how
willing they are to apply it. In the Philippines, we have diverse cultural practices that affects our health
beliefs and it varies from one region to another. Some of these cultural practices are the “albularyo” or
witch-doctors, the use of herbal medicines to cure illnesses like using sineguelas or Spondias purpurea
to cure mouth sore, eating twin bananas to have twins, and a lot more.

NCM 105 ASS 1

1. Waist circumference, as we know it, is the measurement of our waist area. A lot of people,
specially women, see this as an indicator of whether you have a desirable body or not. What we don’t
see is that measuring our waist circumference is not merely the an indicator of a good body, it is also
very helpful in many ways. Waist circumference is considered a good estimate of body fat,
particularly internal fat deposits, as well as a person’s risk of acquiring weight-related disease. Waist
circumference measurement helps in the detection of potential health risks associated with obesity and
overweight. A person is most likely to develop heart disease and type 2 diabetes if the majority of their
fat is concentrated around the waist area rather than the hips. A waist size of more than 35 inches for
women or more than 40 inches for men increases the risk.

2. The Filipino cuisine is composed of diverse Filipino foods coming from different parts of our
country. It is full of different delicious yet nutritional foods from distinct ethno-linguistic groups that
reflects our varied culture and tradition. Throughout the years, Filipinos has continuously spread these
delectable delicacies and continues to evolve it to make it more appetizing yet beneficial to our health.
The Department of Science and Technology's Food and Nutrition Research Institute (FNRI) has come
up with a visual tool to help Filipinos consume the appropriate amount of food for each meal. The
Pinggang Pinoy is a new, simple to follow food guide that utilizes a familiar food plate model to
impart the appropriate food group proportions on a per-meal basis to meet the body's energy and
nutrient needs of adults. It serves as visual tool to help Filipinos adopt healthy eating habits at meal
times by provide effective dietary and healthy lifestyle messages.

3. Fitness has always been among the important aspects of health that we need to maintain in order to
attain a healthy and desirable body. People go to gyms and consult experts to help them take care of
their body well. We eat healthy and nutritious food for a balanced diet. We do all these for the sake of
healthy and fit body. The Department of Health designed a diagram called The Eatwell Plate to help
and guide us with our healthy diet. Formerly known as The Balance of Good Health, it is an overview
of the main food groups and their recommended proportions for a healthy diet. It is the method for
illustrating dietary advice issued officially by the government of the United Kingdom. All foods are
featured in the eatwell plate, allowing you to have a diet which does not deny you your favorite foods,
just to consume them in moderation.

NCM 104 ASS 2

1. Health is something that should always be at the top of everyone’s priority list. In the past years, it
is undeniable that professionals make efforts to improve health in general. They invent and discover
technologies and techniques to help make taking care and restoring human health easier and faster.
Public health efforts developed slowly over time. According to Hanlon and Pickett (1990), during the
prerecorded historic time, from the early remains of human habitation, anthropologists recognize that
early nomadic humans became domesticated and tended to live in increasingly larger groups. Including
incidents of life, health, sickness, and death that inevitability is common from family to the community.
Health care methods have emerged to ensure many of the aggregates' survival, whether based on
superstition or sanitation. During the classical period, the Minoans created means to flush water and to
build drainage systems in the early years of the era 3000 to 1400 BCE. The Egyptians built elaborate
drainage systems around 1000 BCE, made therapeutic remedies and packed deceased ones. The
problem of pollution is an old one. The Biblical Book of Exodus reports "all the waters that were
stinking in the river," and the Hebrews developed the first written hygiene law in the Book of Leviticus
(which was supposed to be authored approximately 500 BCE). This code of hygiene has protected
water and food through the development of legislation governing personal and public hygiene, such as
infection, disinfection and sanitation. Now, a lot of new and modernized technologies are designed by
professionals to further enhance public and private health care.

2. Health isn’t only about the well-being of the physical body, it is composed of a variety of
elements, including social, genetic, environmental and other factors influencing health across a
multitude of areas. In order to improve the health or the aggregates, collaborative and intersectoral
effort of both the public and private organizations are needed. Throughout the years, health care and
public health has constantly been evolving in order to meet the needs of the people. Modern medicine,
or medicine as we know it, started to emerge after the Industrial Revolution in the 18th century.
Economic and industrial growth continued to expand during the 19th century and several scientific
discoveries and inventions were developed. Scientists have made rapid progress in diagnosing and
preventive conditions and how germs and viruses work. Public health is the science of the safety and
improvement of the health of communities via education, policy making and investigation of disease
and injury prevention. Although the main objective of public health has shifted from infectious to
chronic diseases, which are more relevant in today’s society, its focus has remained on improving
conditions where people spend their lives outside of health care settings. In the past decades, a lot of
advancement and research for new insights and innovative solutions to health problems has been
conducted which greatly helped in improving the health care system, not only in the Philippines but
worldwide.

3. Good physical, mental, emotional, social, and spiritual well-being is something we hope for
everyone to have. The ultimate goal is for everyone to be healthy and fit. Among the most important
recent advances in conceptualizing international development is the idea that aggregates' health has a
significant effect on economic performance. While the repercussion of people's health on their
productivity and income can be readily observed and widely recognized, the impacts of population’s
health on economic performance and the welfare of the people, families, and companies are harder to
detect, and until recently, have been largely overlooked. One of the consequences of aggregates' health
on economic growth is possible financial insufficiency. In a developing country like the Philippines, the
national budget could be very tight and strict. To ensure aggregates' health, we must allot resources to
health improvements that can be a powerful means of abetting economic growth and mitigating
poverty. I believe that better health should not have to wait for an improved economy. There are many
possible measures we can use to provide better health care to the people without having to spend a
large amount of money. We can help by conducting programs that aim to raise awareness on health and
wellness or by sharing health education with the less privileged.

NCM 106 ASS 2

1. Nursing is a profession that deals with human life and well-being. In this career path, risks are
certain. Patients are ill; medications and treatments have benefits and side effects; clinical situations are
underdetermined, open-ended, and highly variable (Benner, Malloch, & Sheets, 2010, p. 6).
Sometimes, providing patient care could be petrifying. There's always fear that as a nurse, you might
have administered the wrong medication, or you might have unintentionally hurt your patients. The
consequence is that the risk of harm is intrinsic to the intimacy of caring.  The State is therefore obliged
to protect its citizens from harm. That protection is brought upon by sensible legislation governing
occupations like nursing. The nurse practice act is a nurse's rule book, it contains legal parameters for
what nurses can and cannot do within their jurisdiction. The practice of nursing is a right granted by a
state to protect those who need nursing care, and safe, competent nursing practice is grounded in the
guidelines of the state nurse practice act (NPA) and its rules. All nurses must understand their NPA and
keep up with ongoing changes as this dynamic document evolves and the scope of practice expands.

2. The year 1962 was a busy year, not only in the United States of America but in the whole world. It
was a year filled with drama, achievements, and issues concerning the medical field. During the year
1962, the devastation of thalidomide, a sedative used to relieve morning sickness in pregnant women,
caused birth deformities in Europe, Canada, and other nations. Fast federal measures in the form of the
1962 amendments to the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FD&C) were taken to prevent this sort
of devastation. They were commonly called the Kefauver-Harris Amendments, or Drug Efficacy
Amendment, which Senator Estes Kefauver and Representative Oren Harris introduced in Congress.
This law established a requirement for drug manufacturers to provide evidence of their medicine's
efficacy and safety before approval, to require accurate information on side-effects from drug
publishing, and stopped cheap generic medicinal products being marketed under new trades as new
"breakthrough" medicines as expensive drugs. "With the passage of the amendments, FDA was no
longer a helpless bystander while unproven medicines were streaming into pharmacies and onto
patients' bedside tables," says FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg.

3. In the field of pharmacology and drug development, the main goal is always to come up with a
medication that will help human beings in aiding whatever illness they have. However, there will
always be errors and catastrophes. In the early 1930s, the political desire to make a change was fuelled
by a national outrage over certain outrageous cases of consumer products that have poisoned, maimed,
and bereaved many people. The breaking point happened in 1937, when as soon as the market took
place, an untested medicine kills a large number of patients, including many children. The Food, Drug,
and Cosmetic Act of 1938 strengthened drug and food restrictions included advanced method
protection against unauthorized cosmetics and medical equipment, and enhanced government
enforcement. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is authorized by the Federal Food, Drug
and Cosmetic Act to monitor the safety of food, drugs, medical devices and cosmetics.

4. As a pharmacist, one must be familiar with the laws and regulations that pertain to the industry.
Otherwise, you might violate specific laws without being aware of them. It is vital not only to avoid
breaking the law but to ensure patient safety as well. In 1951, the Durham-Humphrey Amendment was
passed by congress. This amendment was co-sponsored by then-Senator, and later Vice President,
Hubert H. Humphrey Jr., who was a pharmacist in South Dakota before beginning his political career.
The other sponsor of this amendment was Carl Durham, a pharmacist representing North Carolina in
the House of Representatives. Two specific categories, legend (prescription) and over-the-counter
(OTC), were notably established in this law. It required any drug that was usual or possibly damaging
to be dispensed as a prescription medicine under the supervision of a health care practitioner. It had to
bear the words, “Caution: Federal law prohibits dispensing without prescription.” Until this law, there
was no requirement for any drug to be labeled for sale by prescription only. This amendment made the
difference between so-called legend (prescription) medications and over-the-counter drugs (non-
prescription). Legend drugs must be supplied with direct medical supervision, but over-the-counter
drugs can be purchased and used without a prescription. The amendment also enabled spoken rather
than written prescriptions and the refilling of prescriptions.

5. On the 16th day of March 1978, the Drug Regulation Reform Act of 1978, the Carter
Administration's proposal for sweeping revisions of the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act was introduced
in both the House and the Senate. This bill prohibits the manufacture, importation, export, or
distribution of a drug entity or a drug product without the prior issuance by the Department of Health,
Education, and Welfare of a monograph containing a description of such drug and requirements and
guidelines for the contents of information labeling for the forms of drug products eligible for licensing
under such monograph (congress.gov, 1978). The Drug Regulation Reform Act of 1978 supposedly is
designed to update the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act of 1938 and is hoped to provide a
mechanism that will facilitate the introduction of safe and effective drugs into our health care system.
The law removes the NDA's approach and substitutes this approach with a system of monographs on
'drug entities' and licenses for 'drug product.' The research procedure to support and encourage research
while preserving patients' rights will be amplified and redefined. The process of commercial research is
likewise divided into two phases: research into drug discovery and research into medication
development.

NCM 105 ASS 2

1. Our body needs carbohydrates, proteins, fats, vitamins, minerals, fiber, and water to function well.
We must consume at least these nutrients to build our bodies and maintain good health. Failure to do
these might lead to undesirable effects on our bodies. Without proper nutrients; our muscles will
deteriorate, our bones will break, and our thoughts will become sluggish. As a result, we might suffer
from malnutrition. Two clinical symptoms identified in acute serious malnutrition include kwashiorkor
and marasmus.

Kwashiorkor, also known as “edematous malnutrition” due to its association with edema (fluid
retention), is a nutritional disorder most commonly observed in regions experiencing famine. It is a
form of malnutrition caused by a lack of protein in the diet. It commonly happens after a kid stops
breastfeeding and reaches the age of 4. This may happen since the child no longer has the same dietary
nutrients and proteins. Low food supplies and high malnutrition levels are the most common. People
who have kwashiorkor usually have an extremely emaciated appearance in all body parts except their
ankles, feet, and belly, which swell with fluid. Clinical symptoms of this disorder include thinning of
muscles and limbs, enlargement in the fatty liver cells, insatiable eater, and flaky paint appearance on
the skin.

Meanwhile, marasmus is a type of deficiency in protein-energy and calories that can affect anyone but
is noticed primarily in kids. It occurs when the intake of nutrients and energy for an individual is too
low. It is characterized by the wasting of body tissues, particularly muscles and subcutaneous fat. A
child with marasmus may not grow as children typically do. It is more frequent in developing countries,
like in some areas in Asia and Africa. Children with severe marasmus tend to appear tired and bored.
They are always low in energy and enthusiasm. Such children are often irritable, short-tempered, and
uninterested in things. Other clinical symptoms of this condition are thinning of limbs, no enlargement
in the fatty liver cells (unlike in kwashiorkor), poor appetite, and dry and wrinkled appearance on the
skin.

In conclusion, Kwashiorkor and Marasmus are both nutrition disorder that affects a child’s body in
opposite ways. Kwashiorkor gives the child a bloated appearance, insatiable appetite, and severe
protein deficiency, while marasmus gives the overly thin, almost anorexic, look to the child, dry and
wrinkled skin, and severe lacking all nutrients. It is important to be aware of these disorders so that we
can prevent them from happening to other children as well. We must raise awareness of the importance
of proper nutrition to help aid the dilemma of malnutrition.