Issues in Community Nursing

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Table of Contents

Community Description
Analysis of Perspectives on Community
Reference List

Community Description

The First United Community is a product of the inner-city ministry of the United Church of Canada, geographically located in Vancouver Downtown Eastside (VDE). Although the community has a geographical location, it is open to all people irrespective of their place of residence, variances in needs, economic or social standing, and religious or political orientation (First United, n.d.). Members of the community exhibit some awareness of their identity in the shared Christian values and beliefs, and in the needs of people within the confines of the community. The community’s interventions target the marginalized people in the VDE neighborhood, especially the homeless, poor and those at high risk of drug dependence and mental illness. The open membership implies that the First United Community can pass also pass for a virtual community (First United, n.d.).

Analysis of Perspectives on Community

Stanhope & Lancaster (2010) defines community as “…people and the relationship that emerge among them as they develop and use in common some agencies and share a physical environment” (p. 3). The First Church Community exhibits some components of community in that it has a central geographical location; membership can be through virtual platforms; shares common Christian values and beliefs and; it is committed to meeting the needs of members, including the burdens (First United, n.d.).

Membership to the community is established through volunteerism, sponsorship, and the need to become part of a group that is committed to addressing the challenges facing the neighborhood in VDE. Generally, the First Church Community is a culturally diverse community brought together to address the needs and challenges of individuals and families at risk of homelessness, poverty, unequal access to health knowledge and facilities, addictions, and mental illness (First United, n.d.). From the community nursing perspective, it is therefore in order to adopt the premise that this particular community is the client since “…the focus is on the collective or common good of the population instead on individual health’ in the context of that individual’s environment” (Baisch, 2009, p. 2465).

Again, it is imperative to note that membership is open to all people regardless of their geographical location, social or economic standing, and religious or political orientation (First United, n.d.). Membership in the community, in my view, undergoes continuous changes since it is not a closed community; on the contrary, membership is open to all people who are driven by the need to ameliorate the challenges facing VDE. The community is associated with its Christian values and beliefs, not mentioning the fact that it is also glued together by the active need to address the challenges facing members (First United, n.d.).

The current economic hardships witnessed across the world are pushing more people, especially the youth, into drug-dependent behavior, which leads to mental health problems. This therefore means the First Church community is dealing with more cases of drug addiction and mental illness as a direct consequence of this external change. Members influence the health of this particular community by pledging financial and material assistance that is then used to provide health interventions to the marginalized members of the society. Consequently, the community is assisted from a client perspective of community nursing (Baisch, 2009).

Upon sampling some of the definitions of the terms ‘community’, the key components making up a community, in my view, include: the sharing of a common culture, values, beliefs, and norms; residing in either a well-defined geographical location or communicating through virtual platforms; a well-defined social structure and interactions; sharing in common identity; exhibition of cohesiveness; sharing of common needs, and; an active commitment to meeting these needs (Stanhope et al., 2008; Baisch, 2009). Some of these components were corroborated in an interview with the second community member, who argued that members are bound by shared Christian beliefs, are driven by the same needs, and target members for health promotion interventions reside in a well-defined geographical location.

Health, in my view, denotes the wellbeing of individuals, families, groups, and communities, and mainly focuses on the interrelated conditions and determinants that to a large extent influence the wellbeing of a population over the life span. The wellbeing of individuals is mainly influenced by “…what we, as society, do collectively to assure the conditions in which people live can be healthy” (Stanhope & Lancaster, 2010, p. 6). These views were collaborated in the second interview as the interviewee said that some of the community health interventions targeting the community involved the preservation, promotion, and maintenance of health among marginalized members of the community.

Reference List

Baisch, M.J. (2009). Community health: An evolutionary concept analysis. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 65(11), 2464-2476.

First United. (n.d.). Silver-wheaton golf for the homeless community.

Stanhope, M., & Lancaster, J. (2010). Foundations of nursing in the community: Community-oriented practice. St. Louis, Missouri: Mosby, Inc

Stanhope, M., Lancaster, J., Jessup-Falcioni, N., & Viverais-Dresler, G. (2008). Community health nursing in Canada. Toronto, Ont: Mosby Elsevier Canada

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Issues in Community Nursing

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