Risk Assessment of Aggregate, Essay Example

The aggregate of Hillsborough, Florida—HIV-positive, African American women–is characterized by high poverty rates, lack of education, and the recurrence of various disease including sexually transmitted diseases, substance abuse, cardiac diseases, and chronic respiratory with marked differences amongst the communities residing in it. The strengths of the aggregate is that there are already efforts in place to combat escalating rates of HIV infection with some positive results yielded as a result. The reduction of health disparities in the aggregate has been noted, and the availability of solutions related to preventative healthcare has facilitated this process. The weaknesses include poor overall health levels, illiteracy, and poorly maintained infrastructure. Despite decent preventative health care, there is still a lack of education regarding HIV/AIDS in addition to other STDs and substance abuse behaviors that render women vulnerable to contracting HIV/AIDS. Extreme levels of poverty may account for this weakness.  In order to bolster the aggregate prevention of the spread of HIV/AIDS, the promotion of education and various health services is necessary to foment an ideal situation. Reducing disparities in HIV/AIDs incurrence and expanding access to preventative education  and resources is the goal for this aggregate in Hillsborough, Florida.

A risk assessment involves the process of critically assessing the resources. characteristics, needs, and assets within the community in Hillsborough in order to devise strategies to enhance the quality of life and health of that community (Hitchcock, Schubert & Thomas 2003, p.352). This assessment is predicated on the perception of necessity of the aggregate of African-American women who are HIV-positive.  MAP-IT provides an essential framework that can be utilized to both plan and assess an effective public health intervention within Hillsborough in order to create a healthier community. Mobilizing key organizations and individuals into coalitions, aiming for broad representation in order to address escalating rates of HIV.  There are more African Americans living in Florida—Hillsborough being one of the two main cities—who have HIV or who have already died as a result of AIDS in comparison to other ethnic and racial groups.  There is a large black-white chasm, which is why Florida’s Department of Health has increased its commitment and has mobilized the allocated resources in order to confront the disproportional ramifications of HIV/AIDS in the female African American aggregate. There have been a variety of innovative initiatives, interventions, and strategies that mirror how community members, public health officials, and lawmakers have been mobilized and provided meaningful input and have spawned positive results. Further interventions are necessary because of the persistence of disparities regarding HIV and AIDS in the African American community in order to reverse this deplorable trend.

The greatest need within this aggregate is for community education of black women about safe sex practices, thereby encouraging them to get tested as soon as possible. One grassroots group in place is Sistas Organizing to Survive (SOS), which mobilizes African American women in the region in order to combat escalating rates of HIV and AIDS. Throughout Florida, 1 in every 68 non-Hispanic, black female is currently living with HIV/AIDS. In contrast 1 in every 1,281 white women and 1 in every 472 Hispanic women are living with the illness. Moreover, HIV/AIDS has been the leading cause of death of black women in Florida between the ages of 25 and 44 for over 15 years. It is clear that the SOS movement needs to be expanded in order to effective develop an action plan and educate black women so that the spread of HIV/AIDS is curtailed in the future. In addition to education black women of this aggregate about HIV/AIDS in addition to other STDs and behaviors that increase risk for incurring the disease, local initiatives must empower African American women to gain control of their own reproductive health and connect them to resources related to HIV and AIDS. Education tools must be provided for black women to not only get educated but also for them to educate others near them whether it be at church, at work, where they socialize, etc. The goal should be for all of the women in this aggregate to be tested by the year 2020.

Community health nurses work at various levels, including with individuals and with families for risk assessment. Indeed, the community directly affects the health of individuals, families, and various populations residing therein. Nurses thus are charged with the responsibility of disseminating health information and devising specific protocols and health programs. According to Kulbok et al. (2012), environmental and community assessments are necessary in order to procure knowledge within the community regarding substance use and nonuse in order to better understand the needs of the community and health-related components. The environment and contingencies surrounding substance-related illnesses and health; and the conditions within the aggregate and the community with regards to substance use-related behaviors that put black women at risk for HIV. The prevalence of substance abuse combined with the lack of education on risky sexual behaviors poses the greatest risk for the aggregate at the present time and in the future. Friedmann et al. (2002) argue that family functions change over time in response to various economic and social changes.  Family assessments thus focus on the family life cycle and how health risks impact family functions over a protracted period of time. community risk assessments are carried out through a quantitative review of the likelihood of HIV amongst black females to spread. An environmental risk assessment is carried out as follows: identifying the hazard and ascertaining whether or not there is an agent that spawns adverse conditions; carry out an exposure assessment to see if there are any current or anticipated exposures present; conduct a dose-response analysis in which a nurse examines if there is a correlation between dose and incidence rates; and finally carry out a risk characterization in which the approximated incidence of a negative consequence is evaluated within the community population.

Community assessment is a core function of nurses working with community as client, which requires getting to know the community and understand the problems that it faces. An full community assessment first requires nurses to define the client in terms of people, place, and function. One family assessed in Hillsborough is an African American family comprised of a single mother who is HIV-positive and three daughters who are not. They reside in a socioeconomically disadvantaged part of the city and are fervently religious in the Catholic faith. They rely on church to provide assistance and aid, including various education programs. The daughters are all close in age and they are all teenagers, so the oldest daughter works as a waitress to help their mother pay the bills. A large portion of income is funneled into the mother’s medical bills since her HIV diagnosis three years ago. Ultimately, risk assessment of this family involved a comprehensive family history combined with the risks associated with socioeconomically disadvantaged, single-parent families.

References

Friedman, M., Bowden, V., & Jones, E. (2002). Family nursing: Research, theory, and practice. New Jersey: Prentice Hall. 

Kulbok, P.A., Thatcher, E., Park, E., Meszaros, P.S. (2012). Evolving public health nursing roles: Focus on community participatory health promotion and prevention. OJIN: The Online Journal of Issues in Nursing, 17(2).

Stanhope, M. & Lancaster, J. (2012). Public health nursing: Population-centered health care in the community, 8th Edition. Mosby: Vita Life.