Discussion: Preventing Disease in Communities

Discussion: Preventing Disease in Communities

Discussion: Preventing Disease in Communities: The Role of Public Health, the Silent SentiOur “world” starts with our own community, county, and state, then moves out in concentric rings from that point to include our country and eventually the world. Disease is transmitted from person to person through direct contact,

Discussion: Preventing Disease in Communities: The Role of Public Health, the Silent Sentinel

Our “world” starts with our own community, county, and state, then moves out in concentric rings from that point to include our country and eventually the world. Disease is transmitted from person to person through direct contact, or from a source such as a vector or contaminated water through a variety of means, such as flood waters or even terrorist actions. Individuals with limited or no knowledge of safe sex methods may have unprotected sexual relations and knowingly or unknowingly transmit disease to their partners, then to their partners’ partners, and on and on. Often it is the role of the public health nurse to investigate a disease outbreak, contain it, and then educate others so that the same situation doesn’t happen again.

In this Discussion, you will visit a site and interview people who work there about risks for disease transmission, then report on your findings.

To prepare, select which site you will visit from the following options:

High school nurse’s office
Water treatment plant
Public health department
Pediatrician’s office
Create a brief description of your setting, providing some context; for example, how many patients are seen, size or capacity of the facility as applicable, and/or the location of the office or organization.

Take pictures of the building and surrounding area/neighborhood to provide context. You do not have to include the interior/s of the building/s or people/clients who may be there.

Then, during your site visit, pose the questions listed in the following chart:

High school nurse

What is the school’s policy on giving students advice about birth control?
How often do you get requests for information about birth control or how to protect oneself from an STD?
How do you track vaccination compliance, and what happens to students who fall out of compliance?
Local water treatment plant

Where does your community’s water come from?
Where is it stored?
How often is it tested for purity?
What safeguards are in place to prevent tampering with the water supply?
Local public health department

Does this department have an STD clinic?
In addition to testing, does the department offer treatment of one party or both parties?
What is the most frequently diagnosed STD?
A pediatrician’s office

What is your policy on accepting patients who refuse vaccinations?
What are the most common reasons parents decline vaccinations for their children in this particular office?
What is the policy at this office for giving antibiotics to treat viral syndromes?
Now, look at the site you visited through the eyes of the public health nurse (PHN). Imagine you are the PHN and have been asked to investigate an outbreak at this facility.

What questions would you ask?
What suggestions could you make to avoid a disease outbreak at the facility?
What would your role as a change agent be for any deficiencies you find in your on-site inspection?
By Day 3

Post your brief description and pictures of the site you visited. Share the answers you were given to the questions you posed. Then, respond to the above prompts through the eyes of a PHN asked to investigate an outbreak at this facility.

Support your response with references from the professional nursing literature.

Note Initial Post: A 3-paragraph (at least 350 words) response. Be sure to use evidence from the readings and include in-text citations. Utilize essay-level writing practice and skills, including the use of transitional material and organizational frames. Avoid quotes; paraphrase to incorporate evidence into your own writing. A reference list is required. Use the most current evidence (usually ≤ 5 years old).or from a source such as a vector or contaminated water

ORDER NOW FOR AN ORIGINAL PAPER ASSIGNMENT: Discussion: Preventing Disease in Communities

 

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.