Step 1: In your initial post to this discussion forum, respond to the following prompts. Include personal and practice-related experiences or observations as examples that support your response.

Propose a new community health program that could address a population-level health need. Include the following points:

• A description of the health need
• An explanation of the program, including the community health agency that would administer it
• Hypothesize potential health benefits for the population if the program was implemented. Support your opinion with evidence (impact of similar programs or other evidence) NUR 425 Denver School of Nursing Week 11 Selected Community Setting Discussion
  

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Step 2: Your initial post should be 2-3 paragraphs in length. In addition to your original post, be sure to provide a meaningful response to at least two of your peers’ posts by Sunday night at 11:59pm Mountain Time. Read other students’ postings and respond to at least two other students’ postings. What else would you like to know about this setting? Speculate on how you could expand or enhance the community health nurse’s role and effectiveness in the community. Use a professional tone when interacting with your peers. Cite all of your references in APA format.

Discussion 1

The population health need I chose was childhood obesity. “In 2019, an estimated 38.2 million children were overweight or obese” (World Health Organization, 2020). The most common cause of childhood obesity is due to unhealthy eating and lack of physical activity. A new community health program that would address childhood obesity is a program that requires exercise sessions and healthy eating strategies. Fruits and vegetables need to be offered rather than chips. The exercise session would go based on age. Exercises would include jump roping, running, biking, and dancing. The community health agency that I would have administer it is the local community health center. They are the ones that help support health and well-being of the community. I think that there would be many benefits to this program. I think this program may also help get parents involved too. The benefits of this program would be that it improves cognitive function and musculoskeletal issues in children. “Obesity during childhood can greatly influence brain development, and researchers have argued that the excess weight is associated with cognitive dysfunction” (Luque, 2019). NUR 425 Denver School of Nursing Week 11 Selected Community Setting Discussion

Reference:

World Health Organization. (2020, April). Obesity and overweight. Retrieved June 14, 2020, from https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/o…

Luque, M. (2019, December 30). Stand Up To Childhood Obesity: How Fitness Pros Can Impact The Future. Retrieved June 14, 2020, from https://blog.nasm.org/youth-fitness/stand-up-to-ch…

Discussion 2

Healthy eating and healthy lifestyle behaviors can be difficult for many families to achieve. The health need that I will be focusing on is childhood obesity and the need for health education regarding healthy eating and healthy lifestyle behaviors.

The program would be implemented at schools where children spend most of their time. As the program is implemented at schools, parents may be more willing to participate in the programs as it could resemble a school function pertaining to the health of their child or children rather than a doctor’s visit, making the environment less stressful and comfortable for both the parents and the children. The location is also a familiar place to parents and there wouldn’t be a worry about navigating the health care system or health care campus. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2019) states, “The prevalence of obesity decreased with increasing level of education of the household head among children and adolescents aged 2-19 years” (para. 2). The program would also focus on, educate and teach families how to make healthy choices with foods that they already have at home without having to spend a lot of money on healthy foods.

The local public health department and/or local community clinic could help implement this program at schools. Also, the National Association of School Nurses (NASN) can help implement this program to further help bring awareness to childhood obesity and aid in the development of a health program that not only will help educate parents and children about healthy eating and creating healthy lifestyle behaviors but it will also help these children carry on these healthy behaviors into adulthood. NUR 425 Denver School of Nursing Week 11 Selected Community Setting Discussion

The potential health benefits for the population targeted if the program was implemented would help families make healthier choices with foods that they may have at home as well as make healthy food choices when they go grocery shopping. Schools are a place for learning and what better place to further teach families how to make healthy choices than a school. Author Kolbe (2019) states, “School health is a cross-disciplinary field of study and a fundamental strategy that can be used to improve both health and education outcomes” (para. 1). Adults who hold a lower educational level tend to develop more-unhealthy lifestyle behaviors, they experience more psychological stress, suffer from illnesses and disabilities and tend to have children who are also unhealthy (Kolbe, 2019). By providing health education about healthy diets and healthy lifestyle behaviors to children and parents this can prevent children from carrying unhealthy behaviors into adulthood as well as improve their health overall. Author Kolbe (2019) states, “Recent research suggests that healthier children learn better, and, reciprocally, more educated adults lead healthier, more productive, wealthier, and longer lives” (para. 5). School health programs have a variety of names such as child friendly schools, coordinated school health programs, health promoting schools and more to help encourage the integration of school health components that focus on education and health to further improve the health and education outcome, and also the well-being for all students from Pre-K to the 12^thgrade (Kolbe 2019). NUR 425 Denver School of Nursing Week 11 Selected Community Setting Discussion

References

Childhood obesity facts. (2019). Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Retrieved from https://www.cdc.gov/obesity/data/childhood.html

Kolbe, L. J. (2019). School health as a strategy to improve both public health and education. Annual Review of Public Health,40, 443-463. Retrieved from https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/full/10.1146/ann…