Healthy People 2020 Initiative Support Need Analysis

Abstract

The implementation of Healthy People 2020 objectives amounts to following the major disease prevention and health promotion measures: smoking cessation, healthy diet, and sufficient physical activity. These simple but highly effective methods can help the respondent significantly improve her health condition based on the information provided by Healthy People 2020.

Introduction

Healthy People 2020 initiative provides important insights into the health promotion of diverse populations to help the healthcare professionals perform more effectively as the direct caregivers in their communities. This initiative proved itself highly effective in tackling the issues connected with the health disparities present in communities around the United States. The following paper will present an assessment of the healthcare needs of this course project participant interviewed earlier. It will also address the Healthy People 2020 objective to derive information that would help in planning the health promotion measures for the client.

Participant’s Support Needs

The respondent’s main problem is that she is in the risk group to develop uncontrolled diabetes. Her lab results indicate considerable problems. In addition, she has a genetic predisposition to uncontrolled diabetes and has all types of harmful behaviors that are associated with the risks for this malignant disorder. Therefore, the list of her support needs is as flows:

1. Begin medications to control the levels of lipids and blood sugar. It is suggested that Lipitor for cholesterol management and glucophage for the blood glucose control are to be assigned. Another vital point is to provide education to the client as to the importance of actually following the prescribed medicines by taking the drugs regularly and in proper dosage. The rationale for providing such education is the patient’s belonging to the ethnic group of Latin-Americans. Cultural competence would suggest to the nursing professional that clients of this cultural background may have strong beliefs about healthcare matters. Particularly, they may tend to underestimate the significance of following the medication plan closely. They may also stop treatment if they begin to feel better.
2. Modify the harmful behaviors. This aspect means that the patient should quit smoking, improve her diet, and increase her physical activity. Regular educatory sessions and follow-up discussions are needed to make sure that the patient began to have more vegetables and fruits and rejected the high-fat and high-sugar meals. Simultaneously, she should modify related behaviors such as watching too much TV.
3. Strive to control weight. The patient has a dangerous type of obesity, android obesity, which suggests that she s at a high risk of developing dangerous conditions. It is recommended that she should strive to lose weight by all means. Referring to the above-mentioned strategies of the healthy diet and regular activity will implemented at this point as well. In addition, the patient needs to work on improving her emotional status. According to DeBoer (2013), emotional status is associated with the patient’s weight problems. Not only it is the symptoms of depression are the heavy eating and excessive sleep but as they say “a sound mind in a sound body”. DeBoer (2013) argues that improving emotional status has proved itself effective in helping patients with the extra weight. The practical suggestion that the client can stick to is joining some of the community clubs, where everyone can find oneself the wholesome activity to concentrate on and, thus, develop positive emotions (Huffman et al., 2012; Liu et al., 2014).

Healthy People 2020 Objectives Implementation

Speaking about how to implement the objectives of Healthy People 2020 to increase wellness, it is important to note that the respondent’s health needs are in full accord with the health objectives stated in this initiative. First of all, Healthy People 2020 is focused on the problem of tobacco abuse leading to numerous adverse effects for the health (The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2016). The initiative describes the problem of tobacco smoking as the leading cause of life quality deprivation in multiple communities around the United States (The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2016). In addition, the document states that the aspect of tobacco smoking is the leading variable affecting life quality in communities.

Further, Healthy People 2020 has addressed nutrition habits as the central indicator affecting the patient’s health status. The initiative has included such important objectives in connection with nutrition as the weigh status, nutrition habits, and food safety (The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2016). These objectives target the patient’s eating habits as the central factor affecting the state of health and life quality.

A yet another way to implement Healthy People 2020 objectives to increase the patient’s wellness is to improve one’s physical activity status. According to Healthy People 2020, sufficient physical activity is essential to promote an individual’s health status and this is especially the case when one’s health is already affected by a certain type of health disparities. “Participation in moderate and vigorous physical activities and muscle-strengthening activities” is crucial for effective health promotion strategy in patients vulnerable to chronic disorders such as diabetes, obesity or mental conditions (The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2016, para. 6).

The Role of the Nursing Professional

The role of the nursing professional as advocate to the participant’s acceptation of diagnosis and treatment is central. Nurses are the direct care providers for the patients and their essential role is to help people understand the significance of the prescribed medication for their health status improvement (Fayers & Machin, 2013). In addition, their role is to educate the patients about the life style alterations necessary for the good health and quality living (Barker, 2015).

The Social Determinants of Health

The living environment directly affects the patient’s health (Fayers & Machin, 2013). If an individual is subjected to the health disparities due to the specific problem in one’s community, his or her health status will be considerably affected. The social determinants that impact care of patients with chronic needs are their ability to access medical care, and their economic purchasing capacity that conditions their access to quality products, medicines, and other goods affecting one’s state of health (Barker, 2015).

Conclusion

In conclusion, this paper has addressed the support needs of the person interviewed at the first stage of the course project completion. The identified problems were the ideas and behaviors that resulted into the client’s health worsening. They included the unhealthy diet, insufficient physical activity, and smoking. The paper listed suggestions that the nursing professional would need to make to the respondent in order to help one promote one’s health status. Besides, the paper has addressed the role of Healthy People 2020 objectives in the respondent’s health status promotion.

References

Barker, A. M. (2015). Advanced practice nursing. Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Publisher.

DeBoer, M. D. (2013). Obesity, systemic inflammation, and increased risk for cardiovascular disease and diabetes among adolescents: A need for screening tools to target interventions. Nutrition, 29(2), 379-86.

Fayers, P., & Machin, D. (2013). Quality of life: the assessment, analysis and interpretation of patient-reported outcomes. Burlington, MA: John Wiley & Sons.

Huffman, F. G., Vaccaro, J. A., Exebio, J. C., Zarini, G. G., Katz, T., & Dixon, Z. (2012). Television watching, diet quality, and physical activity and diabetes among three ethnicities in the United States. Journal of Environmental and Public Health.

Liu, Y., Wu, J., Shi, Q., Guo, H., Ying, H., & Xu, N. (2014). Primary genetic investigation of a hyperlipidemia model: Molecular characteristics and variants of the apolipoprotein E gene in Mongolian gerbil. BioMed Research International. 

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (2016). Healthy people 2020. Web.