Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Meghan O’Neal
and expectations for the baccalaureate level of a nursing degree. Essential VII describes the
importance of health promotion, disease, and injury prevention throughout an individual’s entire
life span. Essential VII is entitled “Clinical Prevention and Population Health” (AACN, 2008, p
23) also focuses on the overall health of a population. These essentials are in place to ensure that
each patient is receiving the best care possible from all professional members of the healthcare
team. These standards of care come from the evidence-based practice model that the nursing
profession follows. The evidence-based practice models often overlap with healthcare policy,
disease prevention, and health promotion. With healthcare policies changing each year, it is
important to remain up to date with the information presented in this essential VII reference.
Exemplar
The community health assessment was completed after many weeks of research which
included multiple drive by windshield surveys. In addition to the time spent doing research and
writing a 20 page paper, I also was able to complete a power point with a voice over in order to
represent the presentation portion of the Essential VII. The amount of hours spent researching
this topic is almost unmeasurable, as it has taken many days to simply gather all of combined and
individual research using the research data bases. This project best exemplifies the ideas
presented in Essential VII through the population focus and community cared based ideas that
are presented with the sole purpose of disease prevention and health promotion.
ESSENTIAL VII 3
Reflection
Essential VII: Clinical Prevention and Population Health (AACN, 2008, p 24) provides
requirements for the baccalaureate nurse to have obtained through the work of a project. For
example my community health assessment on the town of Paw Paw focuses on the population as
the unit of care. This idea also correlates closely with AACN’s (2008, p 25) statement
“Collaborate with others to develop an intervention plan that takes into account determinants of
health, available resources, and the range of activities that contribute to health
and the prevention of illness, injury, disability, and premature death.” I was able to provide three
priority based care nursing diagnosis’ that accurately represent the healthcare needs of the
residents in Paw Paw, WV. In addition to the nursing diagnosis’ I created three goals with six
different objectives on how to reach these goals. The ideas I have learned throughout my
community health assessment have forced me to view community based care through a different
set of eyes. My power point presentation is a wonderful representation of how Paw Paw
functions as a town, the people, and the social system. By separating my paper and the power
point into these three categories I was able to fulfill another requirement of essential VII that
states “Assess protective and predictive factors, including genetics, which influence the health of
including environmental exposure and a family history that recognizes genetic risks, to identify
current and future health problems. Assess health/illness beliefs, values, attitudes, and practices
of individuals, families, groups, communities, and populations.” (AACN, 2008, p 24) Within this
project I was able to highlight the areas in which some community based care could really help
these people. I enjoyed the time spent researching and developing a plan for such a small town
full of potential.
ESSENTIAL VII 4
References