Public Health Nursing- From Narrow to a Broader Perspective

On behalf of the Editorial Board, it gives me immense pleasure to welcome you to the inaugural issue of the Journal of Community and Public Health Nursing. With great pride, enthusiasm, and anticipation, I inviteyou to read the inaugural issue of the Journal of Community and Public HealthNursing. Our team has firm belief that high-quality research is fundamental ingredient for developing policy and improving practice. Journal of Community and Public Health Nursing has been launched with the aim that this journal becomes a platform to disseminate research findings; to encourage young minds to engage with and be inspired by outstanding research. In the midst of the plethora of academic journals, I hope this journal will become the journal ofchoice for everyone related to public health nursing.It is my expectation that this journal will give our proficient field an academic voice and an arena for dialogue that will move us forward clinically and academically. As such, we encourage submission of evidence-based original research focused on the wide range of public health issues.

An enormous amount of work has gone into the development of this journal and I believe you will see that efforts reflected in this as well as in the future editions to come. I believe that articles published and efforts made in this journal will have a profound impact on the field of public health nursing.

Prevalence of Suicidal Thoughts among a Sample from Baghdad

The Iraqi people witnessed and are still witnessing the painful and terrible consequences of mass violence and military operations which are reflected on their general life condition. Objective: To estimate the prevalence of suicidal thoughts among a sample from Baghdad city and highlight some of the probably associated factors.

This cross-sectional study was conducted in Baghdad city during the period from January 2013 through January 2014. A multistage sampling technique was adopted to choose 13 primary health care centres and eight colleges from three universities in Baghdad. The questionnaire included some demographic variables, history of alcohol drinking and of sedative, narcotic, and psychotic drug usage. Suicidal thoughts were measured via a modified item 9 of Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9).

Suicidal thoughts were reported in 155 (15.5%) of the participants, 4.2% reported alcohol drinking and 4.8% had a history of using sedative drugs. the prevalence of suicidal thoughts is higher among females (19.31%) compared to males (10.36%).

Factors Affecting Early Childhood Growth and Development: Golden 1000 Days

Child development is a gradual unfolding of biologically determined characteristics and traits that arises as the child learns from experiences. In developing countries, more than 200 million children under five years fail to reach their potential in cognitive and social development due to poverty, poor health, nutrition, and deficit care. Most of these children live in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa and many of them are exposed to multiple risks including poverty, malnutrition, poor health and un-stimulating home environment, which detrimentally affecting their development . Health associated to poverty, nutrition and social factors hinders from attaining to their full developmental potential. Other factors that compromise overall development during pregnancy and after birth are parent’s behavioral, dietary deficiencies, chronic infections, exclusive breastfeeding, inadequate feeding practices and lack of stimulation.

Therefore, this paper examines factors affecting early childhood growth and development and categorizing them in five main contributing factors in Bhutan with placing more focus on first 1000 days. In addition, it identifies the possible interventions to enhance child growth and development.

The Dying and Those Who Care for Them

The end-of-life experience encompasses feelings of hopelessness, death anxiety, guilt, and loneliness. The feeling of awaiting death’s arrival is common amongst the dying. El-Jawahri et al. in 2014 and Kim et al. in 2013 observed that patients that were aware of their terminal diagnosis and understood the implications of such prognosis rated their quality of life lower and showed significant increase of emotional distress and anxiety. Patients sometimes use denial of terminal diagnosis and of the illness itself is often used to avoid loneliness. Because of the suffering, the social, and the physical constraints of an illness, feelings of emotional isolation and loneliness set in. Many studies have highlighted the role of loneliness in end-of-life situations. The dying person feels that no one can truly understand his situation and no one can imagine what it is to die. This is characterized by a feeling of aloneness and loneliness in the face of death. Secondly, as you head towards death, as a terminally ill patient, you start losing your identity and your sense of self. Consequently, whatever made you a unique person starts to disappear from your life and, as a result the dying person may feel a lack of relatedness with their world. 

This overwhelming loneliness is fuelled by the growing awareness that one may die alone separated from others. The physical limitations and the emotional distress  experienced by these terminally-ill patients actively contribute to the progressive isolation from others and eventually to the loss of social interactions, which leads to profound feelings of loneliness. Interestingly, although the majority of ill people wish that they would die at home, surrounded by family and loved ones, the truth -unfortunately - is that most people die alone, in hospital beds. However, even having social support and being surrounded by loved ones does not always protect against loneliness of the dying. Although the dying may wish to conserve their interpersonal relationships intact, healthy people, by nature will fear death and will ultimately avoid any contact with it or with disease. It is, thus, a difficult task for careers to provide the patient with adequate help and emotional support. The dying often feels that discussing their illness and death is inappropriate with loved ones. As a result, patients feel that they ought to conceal the pain and suffering, while keeping their feelings to themselves. Thus, the ill patient has nowhere to turn to but his mind to face this loneliness. To cope with this loneliness, many terminally-ill patients then retreat into spirituality and faith.

USA Multi-professional Student Led Community Health Fairs

The goal of Georgia Regents University’s Annual Costa Layman Health Fair is to provide meaningful supervised community outreach training opportunities for student nurses, allied health and dental students to engage a workforce of predominantly Hispanic farmworkers in health care awareness, and health promotion/disease prevention. 

With current estimates of 50 million Hispanics and a projected rising population explosion to 119 million by 2060 – the Hispanic population will be the third fastest growing population in the USA As such, the burden and cost of untreated chronic illnesses requiring publically funded health services is certain to increase expenditures for federal and state healthcare budgets. Strategically planned Community Outreach Programs that focus on prevention, regular monitoring, and educational initiatives are key in promotion of improved core quality of living healthcare measures outlined in the 2012 National Health Disparities Report of 2013. According to the United States Office of Planning Research and Evaluation’s National Agriculture Workers Survey, (OPRE # 2012-13), Hispanic farm-workers are often unfamiliar with their healthcare needs and options. Influencing factors include not being born in the USA, having multiple jobs (which limits the potential for employee paid health insurance), language differences and a lack of formal education. The majority of Hispanic farm-workers were born outside the USA and Puerto Rico. Many, (97.81%), were born in Mexico, while 2% were natives of Central America; 0.1% from South America; and 0.09% from the Caribbean. The average foreign-born Hispanic has been in the USA about twelve years and those earning the highest incomes have been in the USA for an average of 15 years. Hispanic farm workers report at least one job while 33% report multiple employers – many of which have no health care benefits. Additionally, the majorities do not speak (48%) or read (60%) English. Spanish is their preferred form of communication. Most Hispanic workers have six years or less of education and only 9% have completed high school.