Assignment | Community Nursing Practice

Community Nursing PracticesRisks associated with care delivery in the community settings
Literature Review
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Community Nursing Practice 2
Introduction
Community nursing has been defined as nursing care delivery in settings
outside acute hospitals, general practice facilities, police custody, schools or at
homes. Currently, more and more patients are receiving care outside the
traditional settings, with the increasing number of those seeking medical
attention outside hospital setups, nurses continue to adapt to these changing
roles in the health care setting. A community nurse is engaged in a wide variety
of environments in meeting the needs of the patients. The training of community
nurses is fundamental in offering basic care, injections administration, assistance
with medical examination, cleaning and dressing wounds and setting up of
interventions drips and monitoring care delivery. Community nurses play a
fundamental role in offering education and advisory services to families and
patients concerning various aspects of health care. The tasks comprise high-
pressure jobs which often change from day to day and often are faced with a
lack of adequate resources that are available in the hospital (Seibert, 2015).
Health care revitalization in primary health care often requires changes
in health care education and training for the health workforce to be able to adapt
to health care demands. Nurses working in community settings have to undergo
reorientation towards their thinking and practice which focus on promotion and
prevention of people's health. World Health Organization has come up with a
framework model to guide nursing education and guidance framework for nurses
working in community settings (WHO, 2012). This review explores the risk
associated with community nursing practices. Literature has been searched to
identify the risk community nurses often face in the line of their duty and its
impacts on the nursing practices.
Community nursing risks
In Australia, it is estimated that about 25% of health care professionals
are engaged in rural settings. These health care staff are often prone to
occupational associated injuries, work-related disability and have an increased
risk of prolonging work duty due to issues related to workplace safety and
health. In various cases, risk factors have been categorized as those related to
heavy workloads, long working hours, increased stress levels, minimal support,
and violence-related aspects, (Sheikh et al., 2013). It has been viewed that
greater health workforce demand in community settings is related to both

Community Nursing Practice 3
intrinsic and extrinsic challenges in rural settings. These entail aspects related to
poor health outcomes and lower life expectancy. Further, there is an observance
higher rate of disability, violence, accidents, and violence-related aspects,
(AIHW, 2013).
The diverse nature of the health care system leading to delayed health
acquisition and poor health state in community settings imply health care
nursing staff, (Chao, Jou, Liao & Kuo, 2015). Community nursing practices have
been recognized as the key synthesis for public health care practices and
nursing applicable to protection and promotion of the general population health
state and key towards maximizing the overall health state of the individuals,
groups and communities (Deravin, Francis, Nielsen & Anderson, 2017). In rural
and community settings community nurse plays crucial roles as a generalist due
to the lower number of the populations thus hampering care delivered (Spetz,
Skillman & Andrilla, 2017).
Work health and safety seek an avenue to offer protection and safety of
health care staff and all the individuals working in the community from hazards
related to health care delivery (Hilgert, 2012). In the health care context,
community nurses experience stressors related to work health and safety which
are evident in daily practices. These stressors range from poor quality of care,
employment dissatisfaction, and workload in health care. Other related stressors
are linked to cognitive, behavioral, physical and emotional stressors in the health
care workplace.
Search strategy
The search strategy entailed Medline search for 2009-2019, CINHL for
2009-2019 and Embasse database for 2009-2019. The search entailed a full
study review of the studies. The search strategy was tailored to each of the
databases used with medical subject headings in line with the topic of interest.
The inclusion criteria of the studies identified community nurses in community
settings. The scope of nursing practice was wide and was not limited to any
specific specialty. All studies searched were those of less than 10 years and
below. The exclusion criteria obtained entailed nursing practice undertaken in
facility settings and those beyond the ten years of interest. The search further
scan through the studies found and analyzed them thematically for analysis
purposes and to inform on a critical discussion point of view.