Community Final Practicum Essay Example

Background

Nursing is an impressive career since it mainly aims at changing the lives of various groups in the society. This particular course is designed to provide better health services and prevent the mortality rates in the community. By gradually reducing the number of deaths and ensuring a healthy society, the public health fraternity would have achieved its Millennium goal. The ability to avert diseases, maintain well-being and promote health through joined efforts is derived from the practice of public health strategy (Braun-Fahrlander et al., 2002). Moreover, the course recognizes the community as the clients with services availed to individuals, families, and groups to encourage health and avert diseases that may prove a threat to the society. For that reason, we were granted an opportunity to visit the Baltimore neighborhood to participate diagnosing small asthmatic children as the primary component of our community health experience. The populace was extensive since it comprised of 450 children of which 250 were boys while the rest were girls (Braun-Fahrländer et al., 2002).
We worked with Baltimore city health department’s asthma friendly school program to facilitate the issuance of asthma knowledge in various schools. Moreover, our aim was to identify the trend in which the schools and the society are working towards the prevention of the malady. Therefore, the program engaged luring the principals to register their institutions for the program to fight and protect asthma among young children in the society. The initiative also meant to connect schools with various nurses who give technical advice to the asthma victims together with the dissemination of the prevention tools (Braun-Fahrländer et al., 2002). Additionally, the program meant to take the data of the young children infected by the malady and present the number to the ministry of health. It came to our understanding how it is sad for children to live with asthma since it can eliminate their lives any time.

Characteristics of the populace with asthma

The group mainly comprised of young children aged 7-12 years who were in primary level. Since we visited an asthmatic institution, most of the children in the group were asthmatic who needed a swift medical attention before their case got acute (Lieu et al., 2002). The total populace of the school was 450 children of which all were asthmatic. According to the information given by the director of the institution, the disease is mainly inherited from the parents. However, the malady may also be contacted through allergy and eosinophilic airway inflammation. The disease has a significant impact on a child’s quality of life together with that of the parent. For that reason, we were compelled to study the allergies of children who use the asthma medication in school. Moreover, we assessed the hypothesis that asthma severity is rampant among children with certain combinations of co-morbid allergic conditions. Persistent asthma is always treated with inhaled corticosteroids (ICS) (Lieu et al., 2002). Additionally, the victim is supposed to be exposed to short beta agonists (SABA) (Lieu et al., 2002). Mostly, asthmatic children are hypertensive. For that reason, they are at risk of fainting anytime. At the time of our study, about 344 children were undergoing the PACMAN to reduce the harmful effects of the disease (Lieu et al., 2002). The children were regular users of asthma medications and were prescribed to them by the Baltimore community pharmacies. Therefore, when we were conducting our study, the school head invited the asthmatic children with their parents to get proper teachings on how to prevent the malady.

Care management for the population at school

The need for visiting the Baltimore school of asthmatic was to teach both the learning fraternity the different ways of preventing the spread of the malady in the school. The main way of protecting the school populace from the spread of the illness is through the usage of oral antihistaminic drugs (Lieu et al., 2002). The treatment is essential in killing the asthmatic virus that spreads within a short period. Moreover, the malady’s infection mostly settles in the damp and moist places. For that reason, we engaged the school in a thorough cleanup of the wet areas such as toilets and bathrooms. Additionally, the cleanup involved the use of antiseptics to aid in killing the deadly asthma virus, which hid in the moist places. Asthma is mainly caused by smoking near children since tobacco smoke consist of asthmatic illness. For that reason, teachers are warned against smoking in schools. Learning institutions are advised to use the Vacuum cleaners to reduce the buildup of dust mites, pet hair, and dander that may lead to the tremendous spread of the ill (Braun-Fahrländer et al., 2002). Moreover, we instructed the school head to ensure the institution meet the eight elements of a green and healthy school to put away asthma virus. The institution is prohibited from planting plants with allergic pollen that may propel the spread of asthma to children. Pollen, strong fumes, and odors were termed as the primary cause of asthma by the CDC (National Asthma Education, Prevention Program (National Heart, & Blood Institute) Second Expert Panel on the Management of Asthma, 1997). Additionally, parents are supposed to seek immediate medical intervention in case they suspect any asthma symptoms in their children. Early medical intervention may save a child’s life by providing the collect procedures on how to contain the disease. Moreover, asthma vaccinations may help to protect children from contact in the malady.

References

Braun-Fahrländer et al. (2002). Environmental exposure to endotoxin and its relation to asthma in school-age children. New England Journal of Medicine, 347(12), 869-877.
National Asthma Education, Prevention Program (National Heart, & Blood Institute). Second Expert Panel on the Management of Asthma. (1997). Expert panel report 2: Guidelines for the diagnosis and management of asthma. DIANE Publishing.
Lieu et al. (2002). Racial/ethnic variation in asthma status and management practices among children in managed Medicaid. Pediatrics, 109(5), 857-865.