NSG 482 UOPX Wk 4 Healthy Communities Caring for Underserved People Discussion – Description
Post 2 replies to classmates or your faculty member. Be constructive and professional. Minimum of 150 words and one APA reference.
Response 1
In my home state of Michigan, we have 4 distinct regions, 3 of which are classified as rural. We have all of Southern Michigan, which is our Urban zone, Northeast Michigan, which is a rural area, Northwest Michigan which is another rural zone, and finally the Upper Peninsula which is another large rural zone. For the purposes of this post, I will focus on the 3 rural zones. The most surprising thing to me following research of these rural areas is that the unemployment rate in these areas is the same as the unemployment rate in the urban areas at 5.9%. (RHIH, 2022) I would have assumed the unemployment rate would be higher in the rural areas due to lacking job opportunities. As I kept on looking at the underserved population of Northeast Michigan another amazing fact jumped out to me that this entire population does not have a critical access hospital. This area encompasses 11 counties, and no critical access hospital! I find this unacceptable and having a negative impact on the health of these communities. To evidence my stance on this being unacceptable, Lets remember the AHA ACLS guidelines for acute coronary syndromes, in particular the “door to balloon” time. ACLS guidelines state that this time is to be 90 minutes or less for patients who are having a STEMI, however, most of the folks within the rural population area of Northeast Michigan are 120 minutes just in drive time away from the nearest critical access hospital with a cardiac catheterization lab! (Butt et al, 2022) And lastly there is one relationship between the SDOH in this area that correlates with this population being medically underserved, and that is income. The average household income in this area of Michigan is $61,459 while the U.S. average is at $98,893. (NEMSCA, 2021) If this population cannot afford their healthcare needs, then this obviously leads to a medically underserved population.
Rural Health Information Hub. (2022). Michigan Statistics. https://www.ruralhealthinfo.org/states/michigan
Northeast Michigan Community Service Agency. (2021). Selected Economic Characteristics 2017-2021 for Northeast Michigan Income and Benefits. https://www.nemcsa.org/userfiles/filemanager/rxmn2ta8zdfwa3ayorbv/
Butt, T. S., Bashtawi, E., Bououn, B., Wagley, B., Albarrak, B., Sergani, H. E., Mujtaba, S., & Buraiki, J. (2020). Door-to-balloon time in the treatment of ST segment elevation myocardial infarction in a tertiary care center in Saudi Arabia. Annals of Saudi medicine, 40(4), 281–289. https://doi.org/10.5144/0256-4947.2020.281
Discussion 1
During my time spent as an Industrial Health Nurse for NCR (National Cash Register) Corporation, which was a factory employing over 500 employees, I was the sole medical provider on site. A description of my own daily experiences included administering first aid for injuries, providing aspirin or acetaminophen for cramps and headaches, administering allergy injections, organizing blood donation drives, providing health education, being certified in CPR, and knowing when to dial 911. At one time management suggested that I provide a class on smoking cessation in order to decrease the amount of employee break time away from work. With 500 employees, this education would be a rather large and costly project. The first question that came to my mind was, “Do these employees want to stop smoking?” What would be the best way to find the answer to that question? And as a follow up question “What steps should I take if they don’t want to change?” Please share your thoughts using your own example.
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