Community Diagnoses and Interventional Plan

The health status of a community with regard to any health parameter is well described by community nursing diagnoses. North American Nursing Diagnosis Organization-International (NANDA-I) describes nursing diagnoses as clinical judgments on actual or probable communal responses and/or experiences to community health problems (Campbell & Hesketh, 2010). The community diagnosis plans use outlines to make the appropriate care plan for the community, and they define community outcomes and interventions. These plans provide standardized and clear communication among the community health planners and allow collection of appropriate data. This paper outlines the nursing diagnoses made from the Windshield Survey and Community Statistics on Richmond City. The respective nursing interventional plans for the made diagnoses are also comprehensively reviewed. According to the two surveys conducted, Richmond Community has the following health challenges under the community diagnoses: high risk of obesity, asthma and socio-psychological problems (Campbell & Hesketh, 2010).

Richmond Community health and safety concerns

The statistical review of Richmond Community showed that a large number of youth were obese. The preschool obesity rate for the low income groups stood at 16.2% within the community. This was found to be significantly high in relation to the state rate, which was 15.7%. The overall adult obesity was 25.8%, whereas the state level was 26.6% (United States Census Bureau, 2012). This reality shows that the state is experiencing higher rates of obesity among its young population. The Windshield survey showed that the problem was most prevalent in Zip Code TX 77406. The high rate of obesity, observed among youth aged between 14 to 18 years, was attributed to the lack of sufficient physical exercise and poor dietary intake. A survey of the fast food cafes and hotels showed that there was a high dietary intake of fatty foods and high sugar levels. These eating habits coupled by a lack of physical exercise make up the combination, which contributes to their condition. Obesity is a significant problem for the Richmond community because it may lead to other health complications such as diabetes and cardiovascular conditions. This would exacerbate the health situation because the health facilities in the community are already showing insufficiency in poor capacity. Their ability to handle emergencies is also limited. The community diagnoses also revealed greater levels of congestion in Zip code 77406. The close erection of living units exposes occupants to clogged conditions, and overcrowding which poses a problem of asthma (Ferson, 1993). The overcrowding also reduces easy vehicular access in case of emergencies such as fire, and thus endangering the life of the community members. The statistical review also revealed the existence of high cases of rape and assault, mainly within families. This is a sign of socio-psychological health problems and dysfunctional nature of the family as an institution within the community. This is a significant problem because one of the interviewees highlighted the issue and its prevalence as being a great challenge for the society. All the posed challenges require intervention, but of greater priority are the high rates of obesity, which need to be checked. This is because childhood obesity may lead to other conditions and complications in long run. This priority is based on the fact that reducing obesity will help in reducing other conditions such as diabetes and cardiovascular diseases, sleep apnea, adulthood obesity and social discrimination.

Community health nursing intervention

The Underlying Issue

Obesity is a significant cause of morbidity and mortality in the adult population. Obesity is risky for older age people, but its effects are even worse when it occurs at an early age. The age at which it starts largely determines its progress into adulthood and there is greater risk of obesity progressing into adulthood when it occurs at an early stage. People from the lower socio-economic tier are mostly found to be obese. The rise of obesity and its early development call for interventions to curb it during an early stage. These new interventions should be implemented at a level where the impact can be felt across all affected age groups. The best approach is to set up a plan to deal with obesity during its early years through interventions at childhood.

Target Group Analysis

The highlighted trend and facts about obesity call for interventions that focus on the young generation. The interventions in Richmond Community should start at age five because this is the period when problem notably starts. This will be effective in curbing numerous cases of obesity that begin at childhood and progress in to adulthood. Interventional plans at such an early age may pose a problem because children in this age group are not fully cognizant of challenges posed by the problem. They may also not be aware of the challenges posed by their dietary choices and significance of a regular exercise regime. Therefore, parents and teachers will be the major stakeholders in interventional plans directed towards the children. This is important because these stakeholders determine the children’s diet and exercise regimes (Kamp, Graham & Condrasky, 2006). The interventional plan shall involve a home-based plan, which will reduce occurrences of childhood obesity.

Analysis of objectives

The overall objective is to reduce the number of obese children through targeting two major areas, which determine the occurrence of obesity. The interventional plans will target the maintenance of a regular exercise regime and a low calorie diet (Campbell & Hesketh, 2010). This dual approach will effectively combat obesity by allowing the burning of fats and extra calories for children that cannot maintain a strict diet observance (Campbell & Hesketh, 2010; McDowell & Reily, 2003). The reaching of the implementation capacity will be attained by enlightening teachers and parents about the significance of exercise and diet in reducing excessive weight gain. The interventional programs will be carried out in schools where parents will attend with their children on holidays and weekends.
Analysis of alternative strategies and effectiveness of intervention

The success of the interventional plan above relies more on the attendance of the major stakeholders who are the parents. This poses a challenge to the plan because parents may be unable to get sufficient time to attend the training sessions and it may greatly compromise delivery. As such, it would be appropriate to design alternative delivery channels, which can be used to reach the parents. The use of multimedia tools including audio visual materials such as tapes and CDs may also be used. These may be distributed alongside the pamphlets. The use of multimedia is interesting because it incorporates both audio and visual elements (Day & Emmanuel, 2011). Additionally, the advancement in social media can permit parents to share with those who are not in attendances remotely.

Conclusion

In conclusion, obese and overweight conditions are a challenge because they primarily cause an increase in morbidity and mortality. The condition also poses the challenge of progressing into the future and causing other related conditions such as diabetes, asthma, sleep apnea and an increase in medication costs. The high costs incurred in obesity treatment cause are challenges to parents and the health sector. Moreover, the development of interventions should best be sought at an early age to avert progression of obesity into the future teenage years and old age where it is more dangerous. The challenge in making interventions for such problems include the fact that children may not be aware of the dangers of obesity as well as factors that cause obesity. As such, an intervention plan that includes parents, teachers and children serves as the best way to reach the community. In order to facilitate the interventional plan parents will be taught about proper dieting and exercising through seminars and other media.