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.

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.