Health, housing and community nursing
Section: LEARNING TO TEACH
Authors
Araceli Faraldo Cabana
Position
Alumna de Segundo de Enfermería. Universidad Europea de Madrid.
Contact email: 20207270@alumnos.uem.es
Abstract
The environment, specially housing, can provide health to life, or on the contrary, constitute a source for numerous risk factors that threaten life.
Human beings constantly subject the environment to numberless attacks that are “returned” by nature to us as real risks for our health. For instance, the emission of contaminating fumes not only causes many respiratory problems in the citizens of large cities but also acid rain that can spread through thousands and thousands of kilometres, only to fall over a place that has nothing to do with the original emission source.
The same things happens with housing; man tries to take the most advantage of the available ground, by building large buildings of flats, with very small or poorly ventilated apartments, some even without windows. This generates numerous health problems for the occupants of such flats [1].
It is essential that the community nurse is aware of the ecological dimensions of health by incorporating this aspect into his or her daily tasks during field home visits. The nurse must know how to recognise and appraise these dangers in order to implement a health education plan that is both realistic and personalised, commenting the changes that might be necessary with regard to the family and establishing clear, feasible short-term objectives around his or her most immediate surroundings.
Human beings constantly subject the environment to numberless attacks that are “returned” by nature to us as real risks for our health. For instance, the emission of contaminating fumes not only causes many respiratory problems in the citizens of large cities but also acid rain that can spread through thousands and thousands of kilometres, only to fall over a place that has nothing to do with the original emission source.
The same things happens with housing; man tries to take the most advantage of the available ground, by building large buildings of flats, with very small or poorly ventilated apartments, some even without windows. This generates numerous health problems for the occupants of such flats [1].
It is essential that the community nurse is aware of the ecological dimensions of health by incorporating this aspect into his or her daily tasks during field home visits. The nurse must know how to recognise and appraise these dangers in order to implement a health education plan that is both realistic and personalised, commenting the changes that might be necessary with regard to the family and establishing clear, feasible short-term objectives around his or her most immediate surroundings.
Keywords:
environment; health; risk factor; housing; domiciliary carenursing
Versión en Español
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