community

1. Community Health and
Community Health Nursing
Presented by
Deepa Manandhar
Lecturer
Community Health Nursing

2. Introduction

3. Community
• A group of individuals and families living together in a defined
geographic area usually comprising a village, town or city is called
community

4. Community…
According to WHO
“A community is a social group determined by a geographical
boundaries and/or common values and interests. Its members know and
interact with each others. Its functions within a particular social
structure and exhibits and create certain norms, values and social
institutions. The individual belongs to the broader society through his
family and community.”

5. Community Health
• Community health refers to the health status of the members of the
community, to the problems affecting their health and to the totality of
health care provided to the community.
-WHO

6. Community Health Nurse
• A Community Health Nurse (CHN) is a registered nurse (RN) who is
specialized in promoting health for diverse communities, infants,
children, adolescents and adults. One of the primary roles of a
community health nurse is to identify health problems in the
community and to provide health care to patients who may not have
access to, or be able to afford, medical services.

7. Community Health Nursing
• The American nurses association (ANA 1980) defined community
health nursing as “Community health nursing is a synthesis of nursing
and public practice applied for promoting and preventing the health of
people.”

8. Community Health Nursing
Community health nursing has been defined by the division of
Community Health nursing Practice of American Nurses’
Association as “a field of nursing practice for which there exists a body
of knowledge and related skills which is applied in meeting the health
needs of communities, families and individuals in their normal
environment such as at home, at school and at place of work.”

9. Objectives of Community Health Nursing
• To increase the capability of community to deal with their own health problems.
• To strengthen community resources.
• To control and counteract environment.
• To prevent and control communicable and non communicable diseases.
• To provide specialized services.
• To conduct research.

10. Goals
• To assess the need & priorities of vulnerable group like prehnant
mother, children & old age persons.
• To provide health care services at every level of community.
• To make community diagnosis
• To evaluate the health programme and make further plans.

11. Goals
• To prevent disabilities and providing rehabilitation services.
• To provide referral services at various health care levels.
• To increase life expectancy.

12. Principles of CHN
• Promote, protect, preserve the health and prevent the illness.
• Health services should be based on the needs of individual and the
community.
• Health services should be suitable to the budget; workers and the resources.
• Health education is an important part of community health nursing. It
should be preplanned, suitable to conditions, scientifically true and
effective.

13. Principles of CHN…
• Community health Nursing should be provided continuously, without
any interruption.
• Preparation and maintenance of records and reports is very important
in community health nursing.
• Community health nurses and other health workers should be guided
and supervised by highly educated and skilled professionals.

14. Principles of CHN…
• To enhance the standard of nursing profession through:
Conducting nursing research
Provide quality assurance in community health nursing
Performing the role of nurse epidemiologist.

15. Scope of Community Health Nursing

16. Scope of Community Health Nursing
The scope of Community Health Nursing includes
Health
promotion
Health
Prevention
Health
Restoration

17. Scope of Community Health Nursing
Community health nurse work towards achievement of health of an individual
before the birth i.e. during antenatal, intranatal, postnatal period and after birth
throughout life through various organizations such as:
Home care
School
Health
Nursing

18. Scope of Community Health Nursing
Community health nurse work towards achievement of health of an individual
before the birth i.e. during antenatal, intranatal, postnatal period and after birth
throughout life through various organizations such as:
School
Health
Nursing

19. Scope of Community Health Nursing
MCH & Family
Planning

20. Scope of Community Health Nursing
MCH & Family
Planning Mental Health

21. Scope of Community Health Nursing
Geriatric Nursing
Services
Occupational Health
Nursing

22. Scope of Community Health Nursing
Rehabilitation Centre

24. Roles of community health nurse
• Community health nurses wear many hats while conducting day to day
practice. The focus of nursing includes not only individual, but also
the family and the community, meeting these multiple needs requires
multiple roles.

25. Roles of community health nurse…
Roles 1. Care
provider
2. Educator
3. Advocate
4. Manager
5.
Collaborator
6. Leader
7. Researcher

26. Roles of community health nurse…
1. Care provider:
Provides a continuous and comprehensive care to the family, group
of people and community at large.
She emphasizes more on promotive and preventive health care.
The care is provided at home, clinic, school, work place etc.

27. Roles of community health nurse…
2. Educator:
One of the major functions of the community health nurse is that of health
educator.
As educators, the nurse conducts planned health education sessions for
organized community groups e.g., school children, antenatal mothers, eligible
couples etc.
The Community Health Nurse is also involved in giving
incidental/casual/spontaneous health education according to the situation.

28. Roles of community health nurse…
3. Advocate:
Every patient or consumer has the right to fair and compassionate treatment.
An advocate may be considered to be one who will always be acting in the
person’s "best interest".
 Community health nurse as advocate is to help clients find out what services
are available, which ones they are entitled to, and how to obtain these
services.
Community Health Nurse advocate the issues related to patient right and
safety.

29. Roles of community health nurse…
4. Manager:
Provides administrative guidance to ensure that defined goals are accomplished by
analyzing clients' requirements, planning and arranging to meet those needs,
guiding and managing, and evaluating progress.
 Nurses work as managers when they supervise auxiliary personnel, do case
management, handle caseloads, operate clinics, or conduct community health
needs assessments.

30. Roles of community health nurse…
5. Collaborator:
In community health nursing, nurses rarely work alone.
 As a part of the health team, they must collaborate with a variety of individuals,
including clients, other nurses, physicians, social workers, community leaders,
therapists, dietitians, occupational therapists, psychologists, epidemiologists,
biostatisticians, legislators, and others.

31. Roles of community health nurse…
6. Leader
Nurses working in community health are increasingly taking on leadership
roles.
The nurse's role as a leader is to direct, influence, or persuade others to make
changes that will improve people's health.
The major objective of the leadership role is to affect change; consequently, the
community health nurse becomes a change agent.

32. Roles of community health nurse…
7. Researcher:
Community health nurses conduct systematic investigations, data collecting, and
analysis in order to solve problems and improve community health practice.
The term "research" refers to the act of looking for, investigating, discovering, and
interpreting information.
The community health nurse finds an issue or topic, investigates by gathering and
analyzing data, proposes and assesses viable solutions, picks or rejects all
alternatives, and repeats the investigation process.

33. Responsibilities of community health nurse
 Plan, implement and evaluate prevention activities and programs
 Quick response in case of epidemic outbreaks
 Counsel patients and conduct health screening
 Provide health education at the school level and develop educational plans for
individuals

34. Responsibilities of community health nurse
 Enhance the ability of individuals to seek mental health treatment and address
social needs
 Demonstrate nursing techniques for home care of the ill and injured
 Observe patient-family interaction at home
 Assess various physical, social, and health statuses of individuals and families

35. Responsibilities of community health nurse
 Provide health care in line with other health professionals to improve patient
health
 Refer patients to appropriate clinics when medical intervention is required
 Identify the outbreak of health issues in the community

36. Responsibilities of community health nurse
 Provide health care in line with other health professionals to improve patient
health
 Refer patients to appropriate clinics when medical intervention is required
 Identify the outbreak of health issues in the community

37. References
Dahal, K. (2015). Community Health Nursing-I. Makalu Publication House.
Ghimire, B. (2019). A textbook of Community Health Nursing Part-I. Vidyarthi Pustak
Bhandar.
Saxena, P.R. (2021). PHN Nurse and Role of Community Health Nurse.Nursing Guru.
https://www.communityhealthnursing.guru/2021/12/community%20healthnurse.html
Community Health Nurse. (2022). Everynurse. https://everynurse.org/careers/community-
health-nurse/