week-12-reply

Respond to the following two post 100 words one reference each

#1 Juan Velasquez

Community activism is a termed used when people group together to make a change in something they all believe is not fair or wrong in their community. In the healthcare field many different organizations play a big part in activism. They fight for patients, nurses, and change in unjust laws that deter for good quality outcomes. As nurse we need to advocate for the improvement in the healthcare flied. We should collaborate with community activists to change the political, social, and environmental factors that affect everyone. As advanced practice nurses we need to take ownership of the knowledge and experiences we have acquired and become leaders for our communities. As leaders we can help influence the community to make better lifestyle choices.

As future leaders in our community, we need our voice to speak for the betterment of the public. Take our experiences and join likeminded individuals and formulate a plan to spread the word. Smoking has caused a very negative impact on the health of many communities for a very long time. In the United States cigarette smoking is estimated to account for at least 480,000 deaths per year (HHS, 2014).

As advanced practice nurses we have to say informed with new trends in the tobacco industry. This will aid in formulating strategies to fight the big corporation to change tobacco laws. Knowing the new trends will help educated the communities on ways to help stop smoking. To change negative impact of smoking we have to build relationship with community’s leaders to promote better choices. Coordination tighter to set up health fairs to educate on dangers of smoking. Join originations, strength in numbers is one way t be heard by the government. There are many more possibilities just by education and activism on the dangers of smoking. Making people more socially aware of the negative impact for themselves and their loved ones.

In conclusion the goal is to promote a healthier lifestyle. Giving patients the power through education to make the right choices. Empower, advocate, and educate to me are the key factors to help slow down the Big Tobacco industries.

References

Role, I. t. (2016). Influence through policy: Nurses have a unique role. Reflections of nursing leadership, 1.

Maryland, M., Gonzalez, R., (January 31, 2012) “Patient Advocacy in the Community and Legislative Arenas” OJIN: The Online Journal of Issues in Nursing Vol. 17, No. 1, Manuscript 2.

Davoodvand, S., Abbaszadeh, A., & Ahmadi, F. (2016). Patient advocacy from the clinical nurses’ viewpoint: a qualitative study. Journal of medical ethics and history of medicine, 9, 5.

Committee on the Public Health Implications of Raising the Minimum Age for Purchasing Tobacco Products; Board on Population Health and Public Health Practice; Institute of Medicine; Bonnie RJ, Stratton K, Kwan LY, editors. Public Health Implications of Raising the Minimum Age of Legal Access to Tobacco Products. Washington (DC): National Academies Press (US); 2015 Jul 23. 4, The Effects of Tobacco Use on Health.

HHS (Department of Health and Human Services). The health consequences of smoking—50 years of progress: A report of the Surgeon General. Atlanta, GA: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Office on Smoking and Health; 2014.

#2 Yasmine Florvil

Introduction

The week 12 discussion endeavors to explain important concepts that inform community activism. The discussion highlights examples on how each of the concepts applies to specific contexts like the Big Tobacco companies. It concludes by unravelling how advanced nursing practitioners could apply the identified concepts to specific contexts. The discussion explains advanced nursing practitioners could engage in community activism to reduce adverse effects especially from the Big Tobacco in communities in which they come from.

Concepts underlying community activism

For community activism to be effective, the concept of tenacity, persuasiveness and knowledge are important. Tenacity helps nurses and members of community engaged in community activism to embrace persistence, courage and self-drive to weather and overcome all challenges and hurdles faced in the process of the activism cycle. For persuasiveness, it is almost impossible to have successful community activism without engaging the politicians and policymakers in a manner that is compelling and convincing. The nurses need to embrace persuasiveness in packaging their message and information to the members of the community in a manner that it can easily be absorbed and implemented in an action plan. Knowledge is very important in that it shapes, argues and presents the advocacy issue and message in a manner that is more accessible to policymakers and the members of the society whom nurses need their support (Poindexter, 2000).

Examples of application of the concepts

The concept of persuasiveness, knowledge, and tenacity are very well applicable in the case of nurses trying to advocate for universal health care cover. For this to successful, the nurses need to persuade members of the community and policymakers to see why such a move is actually a good policy. They have to package their issue, message and the supporting evidence to these two groups of actors in making the policy position successful. Knowledge is very important in presenting the case to policymakers and even showing them where in the world a similar policy has worked and where it did not work. Since expected policy outputs may take longer to be realized, tenacity is important for both nurses and members of the community in tirelessly pushing and advocating for the desirable reforms in community health care coverage (Poindexter, 2000).

How nurses could engage in community activism

The Big Tobacco are the five biggest tobacco companies in the world. Tobacco is known to have harmful health effects that result to diseases like diabetes, lung disease and heart disease. Tobacco consumption is considered by the government to be a demerit good, which is socially desirable. So, nurses could have a role to play in influencing the community to understand that if they stopped consumption of tobacco products, then much of the diseases they experience could be avoided. Importantly, they could influence the community to support them in getting the government to tax tobacco products more for the sole purpose of discouraging its consumption. To get the support of the community, nurses need to show the individual members of the community how their health would improve (Maryland & Gonzalez, 2012).

Conclusion

Community activism is one of the many ways through which advocacy for health care policy reforms could be undertaken. The activism message and idea could originate from nurses, then members of the community need to support it for progress to be made. In making policymakers to take up, street protests and peaceful demonstrations may be necessary.

REFERENCES

Maryland, M., & Gonzalez, R. (2012). Patient Advocacy in the Community and Legislative Arena. Journal of The American Nurses Association, 17(1), 1-10.

Poindexter, G. (2000). Economic Development and Community Activism. The Urban Lawyer, 32(3), 401-407. Retrieved March 25, 2020, from www.jstor.org/stable/27895252