Abstract
Windshield Reflection
As I was driving to visit my family, I was being guided by the GPS in my car around some beautiful, large high ranch homes where my family resides. She lives in the small community known as the Five Towns that is compose of 5 little villages. As I missed my turn to get in her street, I drove further to make a legal U-Turn, there was a boarder sign that said Hew let the next village. I realized that Woodmere was not very big at all. . This area is predominantly Jewish and a few African Americans. The ages of the houses in Woodmere are about 30-60 years old. Their architectural structures are mostly Capes, split levels and High Ranches. They are made with mostly vinyl materials.
According to Stanhope and Lancaster( 2012, “ a community is defined as a group of people, often living in a defined geographical area, who may share a common culture, values, and norms, and are arrange in a social structure according to relationships which the community has developed over a period of time” (p.397). That family that I chose lives in Woodmere NY. She has lived in this area for about 5 years. Woodmere is known as a Jewish Orthodox Community. On Friday night, I noticed that they are walking with their families and children to the nearby synagogue. This area is mainly residential, but a few commercial stores on the main street, such as CVS, and a Supermarket, a Jewish synagogue, and a school. When I pulled up to the driveway, I parked on the side of the street because her house is located on the curb. As I came out of my car, I heard the noise of the garage door opening. She called out my name before I started climbing the stairs to ring the doorbell. I looked over, and there she was a 93 year old healthy looking woman waving at me to come down through the garage door. The house is 2 tone gray and white color made of vinyl. All the homes in this area seemed like they were all kept up. The landscaping were well maintained with beautiful flowers that were starting to spring up. The people in this area seemed like friendly, working middle class population. Most of the families, I noticed in this area the women were outdoors with baby carriage with at least 2- 3 children. Some people in the neighborhood was walking their dogs. It also seemed that this was a close nit community where everyone knew everyone in the neighborhood. According to Stanhope and Lancaster (2012), Community health “is the meeting of collective needs by identifying problems and managing behaviors within the community itself (p. 401). Overall, this area seems safe.
As a community health care nurse, it very important to know the demographics and geographic of the community. The main function of the community nurse is to have a thorough assessment of the population in the area, and the available resources that the community provides. It is important to promote wellness on the people of the community. This family lives in a very high risk for flood area. Therefore, the patient is at higher risk of having asthma episodes or other respiratory problems. According to the American Lung Association, even when a flood is due to a fairly clean source, such as rain water, the growth of dust mite, which can cause asthma and trigger reactions and attacks. Unfortunately, for many people who suffer from allergies such as hay fever, their conditions often becomes complicated by the development of one of the major COPDs” asthma, emphysema or bronchitis.
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