Role Opportunities for Nurses in Community Care in Elderly

Role opportunities for nurses in Community Care in elderly
Community nurses focus on
• Health promotion
• Disease prevention
• Wellness (Westley & Fletcher, 2004 cited in Stanhope & Lancaster, 2004).

To achieve these goals, nurses are involved in
• Client and community education
• Counselling
• Advocacy
• Care management (Westley & Fletcher, 2004 cited in Stanhope & Lancaster, 2004).

Health promotion:
Community nurses may inform health promotion strategies according to individual differences.
Health promotion strategies:
• Maintaining an active lifestyle (physically and mentally)
• Belonging to a social network
• Feeling independent, useful and valued
• Having good nutrition
• Believing in “God”
• Having a sense of humour
• Exercising healthy coping strategies
            (Ebersole & Hess, 2004; Ronch & Goldfield, 2003; Kending & Brooke, 2004)

Disease prevention:
There are three levels of prevention related to older adults.
1. Primary prevention
2. Secondary prevention (Screening)
3. Tertiary prevention (Maintenance and rehabilitation)
(Westley & Fletcher, 2004 cited in Stanhope & Lancaster, 2004; Williams & Rhead, 2003 cited in Watkins; Edwards & Gastrell, 2004)    
                                 
Rehabilitation is a combination of physical, occupational, psychological, and speech therapy to help debilitated persons maintain or recover their physical capacities.

Rehabilitation is typically needed for older adults after a hip fracture, stroke, or prolonged illness that results in serious deconditioning (Westley & Fletcher, 2004 cited in Stanhope & Lancaster, 2004).

Wellness:
Wellness is not merely the absence of disease or illness.Wellness includes the physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual components of a person.There are five dimensions of wellness.
1. Self-responsibility
2. Nutritional awareness
3. Physical fitness
4. Stress management
5. Environmental sensitivity (Westley & Fletcher, 2004 cited in... [continues]

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