The goal of public health nursing is to prevent disease and promote the health of people and the community. A key component in this is epidemiology. What surprised me most is how critical epidemiology is to public health nursing. Epidemiology is generally concerned with quantifying things like injuries, disability, morbidity, and mortality. For me, these numbers never showed importance. They were just another static in a reading to brush over. Nursing was always about putting a face to that static and working with that person’s specific concerns. Yet, this completely discredits epidemiology. Through this section, I was able to see that those numbers and statics are critical in assessing the problem and finding a solution. They can alert the
…show more content…
Ebola wasn 't considered a major risk by government officials until it reached the crisis stage. This was in part due to the lack of surveillance and a way to combine the data to see how many people were actually sick. If the government could see the impact of the problem, they could have known more specifically what resources they needed. Once the Ebola outbreak was in full swing, it was shown that healthcare workers were more at risk to get the disease than other people were. Through this knowledge, more education and safety precautions were able to be implemented saving those people’s lives. I think this really shows why public health nurses need epidemiology. With knowledge of the problem, more effective solutions can be …show more content…
The point of looking at epidemiology is to identify trends. As a nurse, I won’t have access to every patient’s record, but I will be able to see what is occurring with my patients. I can pinpoint trends that I am seeing in my patients and try to address them. For example, if I am noticing an increase in nonsocial infections, I would need to point it out. Hospital-inquired infections are in part caused by the health care team. I would to talk to my colleagues and work out a way to reduce the infections. This will not only benefit the patients but also the
Ebola wasn 't considered a major risk by government officials until it reached the crisis stage. This was in part due to the lack of surveillance and a way to combine the data to see how many people were actually sick. If the government could see the impact of the problem, they could have known more specifically what resources they needed. Once the Ebola outbreak was in full swing, it was shown that healthcare workers were more at risk to get the disease than other people were. Through this knowledge, more education and safety precautions were able to be implemented saving those people’s lives. I think this really shows why public health nurses need epidemiology. With knowledge of the problem, more effective solutions can be …show more content…
The point of looking at epidemiology is to identify trends. As a nurse, I won’t have access to every patient’s record, but I will be able to see what is occurring with my patients. I can pinpoint trends that I am seeing in my patients and try to address them. For example, if I am noticing an increase in nonsocial infections, I would need to point it out. Hospital-inquired infections are in part caused by the health care team. I would to talk to my colleagues and work out a way to reduce the infections. This will not only benefit the patients but also the