Healthy People 2020 emphasizes the need for community-based public health programs aimed at disease prevention, enhancing the quality of life, and improving healthcare within communities. Public health programs in communities focus on ensuring that the burden of diseases is reduced as people within these communities learn to prevent them (Healthy People 2020, 2018). The essence of this paper is to offer a proposal to address septicemia or blood poisoning within my community. Kempker, Wang, and Martin (2018) posit that Septicemia should not be considered as an individual patient problem that should be treated in intensive care units (ICUs) or emergency departments but as a public health issue that requires system and population-based interventions. Imperatively, Kempker et al. (2018) suggest that a conceptual framework that treats the disease as a public health issue should be developed through the use of the traditional model of prevention on three levels: primary, secondary, and tertiary. For purposes of public health programs, this paper focuses on developing a program that relies on the first two levels of prevention: primary and secondary. According to Weatherspoon & Holland (2017), Septicemia is one of the leading causes of death in the United States with about 40,000 deaths accounting for close to 1.5% of all annual deaths. The disease is common among older adults, young children, and people with chronic conditions and impaired immune systems. Septicemia is a bacterial infection that develops in most cases after an initial untreated infection in the body becomes severe. Imperatively, a public health program that focuses on prevention as opposed to treatment of the condition is essential within communities since according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, eighty percent of sepsis cases start outside healthcare facilities (CDC, 2016; AAFH, 2016). Sepsis education and prevention are important with the aim of reducing incidences, equipping potential patients with relevant information and necessary steps in dealing with symptoms and risk factors, and engagement of all critical stakeholders for effective and better public health programs (Reinhart et al., 2017; WHO, 2017). The program within the community will focus on educating the main population segments vulnerable to the condition, training healthcare professionals in public health and healthcare facilities, and engaging community leaders in the implementation of its goals and objectives. The public health program’s main strategies include education to increase public awareness, promote hygiene, management of risk factors, immunization, and antibiotic prophylaxis or resistance at the primary level. These strategies focus on the prevention of infections and the onset of Septicemia (WHO, 2018). The program will roll out education and public awareness in homes, schools, churches, community social centers, sports grounds, and nursing homes. The education activities will include increased sensitization on hygiene, vaccination, and how to manage an outbreak. Clinic-based surveillance and quarantine practices in high-risk areas like specialty clinics for patients with cystic fibrosis and individuals with the compromised immune system are other strategies that will be addressed through the program (Kempker et al., 2018). The program will also seek to identify features and symptoms of high-risk people; especially those with a history of cardiovascular diseases and increase research on knowledge gaps in the risk management of Sepsis. Secondary strategies in the program would entail training specialized public health practitioners; especially community health and family nursing practitioners and family physicians in the community to help in early identification and treatment interventions (Reinhart et al., 2017). The program will focus on system-based processes and the use of the “golden hours” notion where antibiotics can be used to treat the condition as some of the effective strategies at the secondary prevention level (Kempker et al., 2018). Further, the involvement of healthcare practitioners in increasing awareness, especially through communication with patients, their relatives and other stakeholders would an integral component of this public health program on septicemia in my community. In his paper, Thomas Frieden (2014) identifies six critical areas that make a public health program successful. These include innovation aimed at developing the evidence base for actions, a package of a technical but limited number of evidence-based interventions with profound effects; and effective performance management of the program through real-time monitoring, evaluation, and improvement of the program. Further, Frieden identifies the creation of partnerships and coalitions from public and private sectors, communicating accurate and timely information to all stakeholders, and leadership commitments as success factors (Frieden, 2014. Therefore, an assessment of how the program performs in these six critical success areas will be one of the evaluation steps. In addition, the program’s evaluation will also focus on the identification of stakeholders and their roles in public health promotion, program description, designing of the evaluation, gathering of evidence, drawing conclusions, and presenting the findings so that they can be used recommendations suggested. The evaluation design of this program will focus on four key areas that include the processes and means, resources, activities, and outcomes. The main purpose of the program evaluation would be to assess the effectiveness of the processes, means and activities undertaken based on the strategies identified in the proposal. Further, the evaluation will also focus on the outcomes, especially the need to prevent the occurrence of the disease through primary prevention activities (Northwest Center for Public Health Practice, n.d). While it is important for effective processes to be in place for optimal results or outcomes, the strategies identified in the program are focused on limited but effective processes for better results. Data from the program during the evaluation will include qualitative data generated through primary and secondary sources. Data will be identified based on the activities being undertaken at different levels of prevention. The critical information from existing empirical studies and literature through systematic analysis would be used in the program’s evaluation to gauge and assess responses from the community about the strategies unveiled to increase public awareness about the disease. Qualitative data will also be generated from populations and individuals that will be targeted for education and other interventions. Qualitative data provides descriptive information that captures behavior, opinion, experience, feeling, knowledge and any other observable situations in relation to a phenomenon under investigation. As the program would be focused on increasing public awareness of how to prevent sepsis at two levels; primary and secondary, using this method would be more appropriate since participants and stakeholders would be able to share their experiences, knowledge, and opinion on how to successfully implement the strategies and their effectiveness within the community Northwest Center for Public Health Practice, n.d).
Conclusions
It is imperative that upon evaluation of the program, data will be collected and analyzed so that effective conclusions are made with necessary justifications. In this case, the program’s effectiveness will rely on the generated response and reaction from all stakeholders; especially the targeted populations and systems. It is evident that about 1.5% of deaths in the U.S. are as a result of Septicemia (Weatherspoon & Holland, 2017). Consequently, sepsis is a public health problem that cannot be treated as an individual patient issue meant to be tackled either in the emergency room or intensive care unit but one that requires public education and prevention programs within communities. The above program would be modified based on targeted populations and systems within the community. For instance, separate programs for young people, older adults, and those with impaired immunity and chronic conditions will be developed once the general program’s timelines have been attained. These separate programs and activities will also be tailored to the different segments or demographics within these populations. An effective communication plan will incorporate all stakeholders to enhance their engagement and participation.
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References
American Academy of Family Physicians (2016) CDC Report Calls for Sepsis Education,
Prevention. Retrieved from https://www.aafp.org/news/health-of-the-public/20160830mmwr-sepsis.html
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2018). What is sepsis? Retrieved from https://www.cdc.gov/sepsis/what-is-sepsis.html
Frieden, T. R. (2014) Six Components Necessary for effective Public Health Program Implementation. American Journal of Public Health , vol.104, No.1, pp.17-22.
Healthy People 2020 (2018) Educational and Community-Based Programs. Retrieved from https://www.healthypeople.gov/2020/topics-objectives/topic/educational-and-community-based-programs
Kempker, J. A., Wang, H. E., & Martin, G. S. (2018) Sepsis is a preventable public health problem. Critical Care, vol.22, No.116. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5936625/
Northwest Center for Public Health Practice (n.d) Six Steps of Program Evaluation; Retrieved from https://www.nwcphp.org/evaluation/tools-resources/program-evaluation-tips
Reinhart, K., Daniels, R., Kissoon, N., Machado, F. R., Schachter, R. D. & Finfer, S. (2017).
Recognizing Sepsis as a Global Health Priority — A WHO Resolution. The New England Journal of Medicine , vol.377, pp.414-417.
Weatherspoon, D. & Holland, K. (2017). What Are the 12 Leading Causes of Death in the The United States? Retrieved from https://www.healthline.com/health/leading-causes-of-death#1
World Health Organization (2018). Improving the prevention, diagnosis and clinical management of sepsis. Retrieved from http://www.who.int/servicedeliverysafety/areas/sepsis/en/
