Communicable or infectious diseases are health disorders caused by organisms, such as bacteria, viruses, parasites, and fungi. Some of the infectious diseases are passed from one individual to another resulting to widespread of the infection in the community (Trubiano et al., 2016). An individual can contract infectious diseases through insect bites, consuming contaminated food or water, or when one is exposed to an infection-causing organism in the environment. Many infections can respond to home remedies, but life-threatening ones may require hospitalization (Ali et al., 2018). Vaccination can also help prevent some infectious diseases such as chickenpox and measles. The structure of this essay involves the description of infectious diseases, the role of nurses in addressing communicable diseases, partnering with healthcare providers to control the diseases, and the conclusion of the paper. The essay's primary objective is to describe the role of nurses in addressing infectious diseases in the community of the Colac area of the Victoria region in Australia.
Infectious diseases can spread rapidly in the process compromising the entire community's health if no action is taken. In Australia, approximately 6,300 people died, and another 400,000 were hospitalized due to infectious diseases between 2015 and 2016 (Pollett et al., 2016). The individuals in Australia who live in rural or remote areas face challenges when it comes to accessing quality healthcare. In the remote areas, economic, physical, social, environmental, and sociocultural factors that influence and define the health behaviors in the community. The environmental and occupational hazards in the rural or remote areas are common, and geographical distance between the communities makes it difficult for the community health providers to access and provide care to people (Melody et al., 2016). When there is an outbreak of communicable diseases in the community, many be affected because the accessibility of healthcare can be challenging to most people in the community, compromising their ability to receive timely treatment.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
When there is an outbreak of communicable diseases, the Colac community experiences several challenges that affect their normal operation. One of the key problems is the treatment cost that people will incur while seeking medical care (Doerflinger et al., 2017). When community spend a lot of money on healthcare, sectors such as agriculture and education are affected because the number of finances available will not be sufficient to ensure proper development. The outbreak of communicable disease also affects the economic status at the community level; for instance, when a breadwinner falls sick in most families in the region, the entire community will struggle to meet basic needs such as food (Pradyumna et al., 2019). The disease can also kill several community members, resulting in mental and psychological problems for the family and the community as a whole. The community's agricultural sector is significantly affected by communicable diseases. Over 60% of the pathogens that cause human infectious diseases originate from the agricultural sector, such as livestock keeping (Klous et al., 2016). And during an outbreak of infectious diseases such as zoonotic-related infection, most of the people in the community will lose their animals through disposal as an effort to control the outbreak.
The community health sector is also affected when there is an outbreak of communicable diseases. When many people are infected with communicable diseases, the available resources in the community health sector are put under strain. Many individuals fall sick during an infectious disease outbreak while increasing the demand for healthcare and physicians (Coates et al., 2020). Another impact of infectious diseases on the community is the restricted movement, people are put on quarantine to prevent further spread of the infection to other neighboring communities. The restricted movement also affects local tourism in the community compromising development in the area (Heywood et al., 2016). with the restricted movement, businesses in the community are also affected, especially the selling of animals and their products and also sourcing out of goods and services outside the affected community.
When there is an outbreak of infectious diseases, healthcare providers, especially community nurses, play a critical role in addressing the health problem in the community. Community health nurses are among the important groups of people who use their ability to solve problems, commit to advocating for patients, and empathy to address the outbreak of communicable diseases in the community (Boyce & Katz, 2019). The nurses in the community are skilled in teaching the public the best approaches to promoting community health, especially during the outbreak of communicable diseases. Community nurses are also reliable and flexible, and they can provide specialized care to different individuals in the community when there is an infectious disease outbreak (Chew et al., 2020). They are also good leaders who lead and act professionally to ensure the provision of quality healthcare to the public. The strengths and role of nurses are vital when addressing the outbreak of communicable diseases in the community.
In the Colac area, the community nurses play a critical role in enhancing the health of the people by working with them to address the problem of infectious diseases. One of the important roles of community nurses is providing direct care to the sick individual (Palagyi et al., 2019). In the Colac area, nurses ensure that all individuals, groups, and families in the community receive quality healthcare as per the nursing code of ethics in Australia, in which the first code states that all nurses must value and provide quality care to all people (Johnstone, 2016). Providing clinical services to the people is critical because it plays an important role in addressing the outbreak through the medication, promoting the health of the community (Schwetz et al., 2019). Through the clinician role, nurses protect the public from diseases by adhering to medication safety standards in the community in the process of fulfilling the National Safety and Quality Health Service (NSQHS) standards of Australia require nurses and other health providing professionals to observe all the standards for quality health delivery to patients.
The community nurses also play the role of educator in Colac area, where they engage the public by providing critical information concerning community health promotion. Encouraging the community members to embrace the culture of washing hands promote the public's health because some infectious diseases, such as diarrhea, and Hepatitis A and B, can be transmitted through dirty hands (Bloom et al., 2017). By playing the role of educator in the community, nurses can assess the attitude, knowledge, beliefs, and skills of the people enabling them to provide quality health services based on the code of ethics that require nurses to value diversity of people and access to information and quality healthcare delivery to all people (Oprescu et al., 2017). The nursing role of educators in the community also upholds communicating for safety standards and preventing and controlling healthcare-associated infections standard as required by the (NSQHS) Standards of Australia.
Community nurses also advocate for sick individuals, and through this, they can ensure each person receives equal and humane treatment. Community health nurses play a critical role in supporting the patient's rights concerning their healthcare. In the Colac area, nurses are also encouraging the community to take the right food, medication, and services to promote general health among people. Furthermore, nurses provide sufficient and critical information on healthcare to individuals and promote community health by raising awareness about communicable diseases and the appropriate measures to help address the outbreak (Muirhead & Birks, 2019). By playing the role of advocate, nurses in the community will have observed the Australian nursing code of ethics on providing quality nursing care to all people, the value of informed decision-making, and value on the diversity of people who seek assistance from nurses to promote their healthcare. The role of advocating for patient's rights also observes the nursing quality health service standards stipulated in the (NSQHS) such as medication safety standards, communicating for safety standards, and comprehensive care standards.
Community health nurses also play a role as collaborators by engaging with other nurses, physicians, community leaders, and members, epidemiologists, and social workers to ensure quality public health in the community. When nurses work with other community stakeholders, it becomes crucial in addressing infectious diseases because each person has a role to play to promote community health and manage the impacts of the outbreak (Thomas et al., 2018). By playing the role of collaborator, community health nurses work according to the code of ethics that requires them to value access to quality care to all people, value diversity of people, value culture of safety in nursing and healthcare (Blackberry, 2016). The responsibility of being a collaborator enable the community nurses to observe the standards (NSQHS) such as the provision of comprehensive care standards and to communicate for a safety standard. In the Colac area, the community health nurses have a significant role to play together with the community members to ensure that people access quality healthcare and address infectious diseases more effectively.
In the Colac area, nurses need to work with the community to promote the quality of public health and address the problems of communicable diseases in the regions. Nurses have crucial health information and skills that need to share with the community to help promote the quality of health among the members (Rogers et al., 2019). When the healthcare providers work with the community to enhance the quality of health, there are high chances that the program will succeed because helping one another to achieve the set goals is necessary. Using skills and information to help the community address communicable diseases, nurses adhere to some of the Australian nursing codes of ethics, such as valuing quality nursing care to all people, valuing informed-decision making, and embracing the diversity of people in the community. They also observe some of the (NSQHS) standards that include communicating for safety standards, comprehensive care standards, and recognizing and responding to acute deterioration standards.
Community health nurses also have a key role in teaching the public the critical measures that people should take to promote community health and address infectious diseases (Van Huizen et al., 2021). Since people in the community need to learn measures to control diseases and promote their health, nurses should take the role of educator to pass necessary knowledge to community members, thus enhancing public health. Nurses also work with the community because they provide clinical services to sick people to restore and prevent the further spread of the infection (Franco-Trigo et al., 2020). Through educating the public and providing clinical services against infectious diseases, nurses adhere to the Australian nursing code of ethics because they value nursing care for all people, value access to quality healthcare for all people, ethical value management of information, and value respect and kindness for self and other people in the community (Chughtai et al., 2020). The education and provision of medical assistance to the community members also upholds the (NSQHS) standards because nurses tend to meet the comprehensive care standard, communicate for safety standards, and adhere to medication safety standards.
Working in partnership with other organizations in fighting against infectious diseases in the Colac area is essential because it enables the nurses to achieve their goals of preventing and managing communicable diseases in the community (Callander et al., 2018). Three organizations in Australia play a critical role in addressing infectious diseases and can work with community health nurses in the Colac area to promote public health. The first organization is the Australasian Society for Infectious Diseases (ASID) which plays a critical role in promoting research in all aspects of communicable diseases and advocating for sound and evidence-based public health policies related to infectious diseases. ASID consist of various professionals such as infectious diseases physicians, infection control practitioners, veterinarians, microbiologists and many other who work together to address and prevent the spread of communicable diseases in the country. Another organization is the Communicable Disease Control Branch (CDCB) that plays a vital role in reducing infectious diseases in the country. The organization conducts immunization, infection control services, and disease surveillance and investigation (Mohammed et al., 2018).
Additionally, the organization also provides specialist medical and epidemiological advice on infectious diseases, liaison with the laboratories, government agencies, and professional groups in addressing infectious diseases. It also provides undergraduate and postgraduate teachings about communicable diseases. Infection Control Expert Group (ICEG) is another organization in Australia that provides expert advice and information to hospitals and institutions on the best practices to help prevent or address infectious diseases in the country.
Community health nurses can partner with these organizations to address the problem of infectious diseases and promote the health of community members. With the Australasian Society for Infectious Diseases organization, community nurses can participate in conducting research on infectious diseases and advocate for evidence-based public policies to address or prevent infectious diseases in the community (Lee & Kang, 2020). Nurses can also advance their studies concerning communicable and infectious diseases in the same organization enabling them to promote the community's health. Community health nurses can also work with Communicable Disease Control Branch to provide specialist medical and epidemiological advice necessary to control the outbreak of infectious diseases in the community (Halcomb et al., 2020). CDCB can provide undergraduate and postgraduate teaching concerning communicable diseases enabling community nurses to have the necessary knowledge and skill to help them manage infectious diseases and promote community health (Lane et al., 2017). Nurses can also liaison with CDCB to provide surveillance and investigation, enabling them to monitor and control infectious diseases in the community. With the Infection Control Expert Group, community health nurses can obtain expert advice and information that enables them to address the problem of infectious diseases in the end, promoting the quality of community health.
Infectious diseases can spread from one person to the other in the community leading to an outbreak. Controlling the infection is essential towards promoting the quality of health in the community. Communicable diseases affect the normal operation of the community; for instance, people spend more money when seeking treatment, influence the economic status of the community, interrupt animal productions, movement of people, and trade (Johnson et al., 2018). During an outbreak of infectious diseases, community health nurses play a vital role in providing treatment and educating people about the appropriate measures necessary to address the problem. In the Colac area, nurses are responsible for providing direct care to the sick individuals in the community and educating other members on the appropriate measures such as washing hands to control the spread of communicable diseases. Nurses also advocate for the sick and ensure they receive their rights to quality healthcare that meet the set standards (Kalaitzidis & Jewell, 2020). Community health nurses can work with different organizations to ensure the prevention and control of infectious diseases in the community in the process of promoting the health of the people.
References
Ali, S. H., Foster, T., & Hall, N. L. (2018). The relationship between infectious diseases and housing maintenance in Indigenous Australian households. International journal of environmental research and public health, 15( 12 ) , 2827. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph15122827
Blackberry, I. (2016). Primary health care and community health. Local and Global Perspectives , 63. :https://books.google.co.ke/books?hl=en&lr=&id=wyX-CwAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PA63&dq=role+of+collaborator++by+community+health+nurses+in+australia&ots=teEhkx5vX0&sig=GgzuDTu-U_5XX8SvaG3XyVB8zdo&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=role%20of%20collaborator%20%20by%20community%
Bloom, D. E., Black, S., & Rappuoli, R. (2017). Emerging infectious diseases: a proactive approach. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 114( 16 ) , 4055-4059. :https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1701410114
Boyce, M. R., & Katz, R. (2019). Community health workers and pandemic preparedness: current and prospective roles. Frontiers in public health, 7 , 62. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2019.00062
Callander, D., Moreira, C., El-Hayek, C., & Asselin, J. (2018). Monitoring the control of sexually transmissible infections and blood-borne viruses: protocol for the Australian Collaboration for Coordinated Enhanced Sentinel Surveillance. JMIR research protocols, 7( 11 ) , 11028. https://doi.org/doi:10.2196/11028
Chew, Q. H., Wei, K. C., Vasoo, S., & Chua, H. C. (2020). Narrative synthesis of psychological and coping responses towards emerging infectious disease outbreaks in the general population. Tropical Journal of Pharmaceutical Research, 61( 7 ) . https://doi.org10.11622/smedj.2020046
Chughtai, A. A., Seale, H., & Rawlinson, W. D. (2020). Selection and use of respiratory protection by healthcare workers to protect from infectious diseases in hospital settings. Annals of work exposures and health, 64( 4 ) , 368-377. https://doi.org/10.1093/annweh/wxaa020
Coates, M. M., Kintu, A., Gupta, N., & Wroe, E. B. (2020). Burden of non-communicable diseases from infectious causes in 2017: a modelling study. The Lancet Global Health, 8( 12 ) , 1489-1498. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2214-109X(20)30358-2
Doerflinger, M., Forsyth, W., Ebert, G., & Pellegrini, M. (2017). The ultimate weapon to battle infectious diseases. Cellular microbiology, 19( 2 ) , 12693. https://doi.org/10.1111/cmi.12693
Franco-Trigo, L., Marqués-Sánchez, P., & Tudball, J. (2020). Collaborative health service planning: a stakeholder analysis with social network analysis to develop a community pharmacy service. Research in Social and Administrative Pharmacy, 16( 2 ) , 216-229. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sapharm.2019.05.008
Halcomb, E., Williams, A., Ashley, C., & McInnes, S. (2020). The support needs of Australian primary health care nurses during the COVID ‐ 19 pandemic. Journal of nursing management, 28( 7 ) , 1553-1560. https://doi.org/10.1111/jonm.13108
Heywood, A. E., Zwar, N., & Forssman, B. L. (2016). The contribution of travellers visiting friends and relatives to notified infectious diseases in Australia: state-based enhanced surveillance. Epidemiology & Infection, 144( 16 ) , 3554-3563. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0950268816001734
Johnson, I., Hansen, A., & Bi, P. (2018). The challenges of implementing an integrated One Health surveillance system in Australia. Zoonoses and public health, 65( 1 ) , 229-236. https://doi.org/10.1111/zph.12433
Johnstone, M. J. (2016). Key milestones in the operationalisation of professional nursing ethics in Australia: a brief historical overview. Australian Journal of Advanced Nursing, 33( 4 ) , 35-45. https:///doi/abs/10.3316/ielapa.269617538331751
Kalaitzidis, E., & Jewell, P. (2020). The concept of advocacy in nursing: a critical analysis. The health care manager, 39( 2 ) , 77-84. https://10.1097/HCM.0000000000000292
Klous, G., Huss, A., & Heederik, D. J. (2016). Human–livestock contacts and their relationship to transmission of zoonotic pathogens, a systematic review of literature. One Health, 2 , 65-76. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.onehlt.2016.03.001
Lane, R., Halcomb, E., McKenna, L., & Zwar, N. (2017). Advancing general practice nursing in Australia: roles and responsibilities of primary healthcare organisations. Australian Health Review, 41( 2 ) , 127-132. https://doi.org/10.1071/AH15239
Lee, J., & Kang, S. J. (2020). Factors influencing nurses' intention to care for patients with emerging infectious diseases: Application of the theory of planned behavior. Nursing & health sciences, 22( 1 ) , 82-90. https://doi.org/10.1111/nhs.12652
Melody, S. M., Bennett, E., & Clifford, H. D. (2016). A cross-sectional survey of environmental health in remote Aboriginal communities in Western Australia. International journal of environmental health research, 26( 5 ) , 525-535. https://doi.org/10.1080/09603123.2016.1194384
Mohammed, H., Clarke, M., Koehler, A., & Watson, M. (2018). Factors associated with uptake of influenza and pertussis vaccines among pregnant women in South Australia. PLoS One, 13( 6 ) , 197867. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0197867
Muirhead, S., & Birks, M. (2019). Roles of rural and remote registered nurses in Australia: an integrative review. Australian Journal of Advanced Nursing, 37( 1 ) , 21-33. https://doi/abs/10.3316/informit.259780903908276
Oprescu, F., McAllister, M., & Duncan, D. (2017). Professional development needs of nurse educators. An Australian case study. Nurse Education in Practice, 27 , 165-168. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nepr.2017.07.004
Palagyi, A., Marais, B. J., Abimbola, S., & Topp, S. M. (2019). Health system preparedness for emerging infectious diseases: A synthesis of the literature. Global Public Health, 14( 12 ) , 1847-1868. https://doi.org/10.1080/17441692.2019.1614645
Pollett, S., Banner, P., O'Sullivan, M. V., & Ralph, A. P. (2016). Epidemiology, diagnosis and management of extra-pulmonary tuberculosis in a low-prevalence country: a four year retrospective study in an Australian tertiary infectious diseases unit. PloS one, 11( 3 ) , 0149372. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0149372
Pradyumna, A., Egal, F., & Utzinger, J. (2019). Sustainable food systems, health, and infectious diseases: concerns and opportunities. Acta tropica, 191 , 172-177. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actatropica.2018.12.042
Rogers, K., Williams, K., & Benrimoj, S. I. (2019). Evaluation of a collaborative protocolized approach by community pharmacists and general medical practitioners for an Australian minor ailments scheme: protocol for a cluster randomized controlled trial. JMIR research protocols, 8( 8 ) , 13973. https://doi.org/10.2196/13973
Schwetz, T. A., Calder, T., & Rosenthal, E. (2019). Infectious diseases: a converging public health crisis. The Journal of infectious diseases, 220( 3 ) , 346-349. https://doi.org/10.1093/infdis/jiz133
Thomas, S., Cashman, P., Islam, F., & Baker, L. (2018). Tailoring immunisation service delivery in a disadvantaged community in Australia; views of health providers and parents. Vaccine, 36( 19 ) , 2596-2603. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.vaccine.2018.03.072
Trubiano, J. A., Cheng, A. C., Korman, T. M., & Roder, C. (2016). Australasian Society of Infectious Diseases updated guidelines for the management of Clostridium difficile infection in adults and children in Australia. Internal medicine journal, 46( 4 ) , 479-493. https://doi.org/10.1111/imj.13027
Van Huizen, P., Kuhn, L., Russo, P. L., & Connell, C. J. (2021). The nurses' role in antimicrobial stewardship: A scoping review. International Journal of Nursing Studies, 113 , 103772. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijnurstu.2020.103772
