Find out why community health is so important to people all over the world.

When it comes to ensuring that people receive the care they need to live healthy lives, healthcare professionals play a crucial role. However, individual health is intertwined with the communities to which we belong, so wellness does not exist in isolation.

Simply put, a group of people is a community. These individuals may be part of a community because of where they live geographically, but they may also be a part of a community because of factors like where they work or go to school. Community health nursing applies evidence-based research to a variety of communities, taking into account a person’s cultural and economic background.

The Role of a Community Health Nurse

Community health nurses spend their time working outside of a hospital and interacting with the local population. They want to help stop the spread of diseases and illnesses that can be avoided by raising awareness of particular public health issues. This could include improving health with an emphasis on the opioid crisis, vaccinations, teen pregnancy, smoking, obesity, HIV/AIDS, and other issues, depending on the community that is being served.

The Relationship Between Community Health and COVID-19 If the pandemic has taught us anything, it is that certain communities and populations can be, and frequently are, disproportionately impacted by crises affecting public health. For instance, the COVID-19 hospitalization rate among non-Hispanic American Indian and Alaska Native populations was 3.3 times higher than that of white non-Hispanic populations. Latino and Hispanic populations had a death risk that was more than twice as high as that of white, non-Hispanic populations. Non-Hispanic Black or African American populations had a 1.1-fold higher risk of contracting COVID-19.

• 1 States were also affected by the coronavirus at varying rates, in addition to communities of color. California, New York, Texas, Florida, and Pennsylvania had the most COVID-19-related deaths as of May 2021; The lowest number was in Vermont.
• 2 The Continuous Importance of Community Health According to the Healthy People 2030 initiative of the Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, a community’s health directly impacts its members’ quality of life. In point of fact, community health has been found to have an effect on educational attainment, crime rates, and life expectancy, among other things. Because of this, the initiative’s primary goal is to create healthier communities by increasing the number of organizations that provide preventive healthcare services, making workplaces safer, and giving children more opportunities to stay active.
• 3 The effects of neglecting community health Neglecting community health can result in difficult and complicated issues. For instance, obesity rates tend to be higher in unhealthy communities. The high cost of healthy food, a lack of peer or social support, and policies that dictate how a community is designed are often the causes of these higher rates.
• 4 As a result, chronic conditions like diabetes and heart disease are more common in unhealthy communities, accounting for 90% of the nation’s annual healthcare costs, along with mental health issues.
• 5 In this way, community health directly affects the economy in addition to individual health.