Community nursing

A community is a social grouping with a special type of internal social ties and a special position in the wider social environment. The word community comes from the Latin cum - together, among each other and munere - to give. Community or communitas means community, society, benevolence, kindness, sense of generality, togetherness, fellowship, the opposite of society.

Community care

• It consists of health, social and other services, which are provided to the sick, but also to healthy citizens, families = groups of a certain community (geographical, ethnic).
• These services complement primary care.
• The goal is to focus on care in the home environment, in the community, even in case of illness or addiction.

Community Needs Assessment

When assessing community needs, we focus primarily on two areas:

• Characteristics of work that leads to community development .
  • In this regard, the nurse's work is influenced by the wider social and political context.
• Ways to assess differences in the health status of different community members .

Information Pyramid

• The first level defines basic information about age, gender, employment, family structures, ethnic groups, the ability of the community to take care of itself, use social supports and networks.
• The second level includes socioeconomic factors affecting health.
• The third level provides us with information about available services in relation to their financial coverage, availability and acceptability.
• The fourth level includes the health policy of the given state.

Community Planning

• It is an open, continuous process.
• The aim is to find a solution that best suits local conditions and community needs.
• On the basis of the data found, when public resources and individual resources are connected, a functioning system of health, social and other services responding to the needs of communities can be formed.

Community Planning - The Process

• Searching for specific groups (people in a certain state of helplessness, old, dying, drug addicts,...).
• Determination of age structure, number of clients and evaluation of their needs.
• Evaluation of existing community services (health, social and other, e.g. involvement of civic associations).
• Creating a multidisciplinary team.

Health services and institutions in community care

• Family, home, friends (irreplaceable role of family and home environment);
• general practitioners for adults, for children and adolescents;
• ambulatory gynecologists;
• ambulatory dentists;
• home care agencies;
• LSPP;
• stationary and specialized centers;
• care service.

Issues we face

• Rising health care costs;
• increasing client expectations and demands;
• demographic changes and population aging;
• lack of nurses and other health workers in practice;
• the untapped potential of nursing;
• natural and civilizational disasters;
• endemic and pandemic diseases , new and re-emerging diseases;
• increase in the number of chronic diseases;
• moving towards community care → building, strengthening and maintaining the role of the nurse.

A look into the future, where we are heading

• To change the provision of services – from institutions to communities, from curative care to preventive care;
• nurses will bring continuity to care;
• nurses gain a new orientation, a range of additional skills and competencies;
• hospitals (secondary health care) and special centers will be reserved for more acute cases;
• to quality primary care services for all communities.