The community health nursing diagnostic statement for south county Rhode Island would be increased risk of fall-related injuries among the Rhode Island elderly population because of physical and environmental factors, medications, mental changes, and individual behaviors as evidenced by above national average injury rates among the older adults.
Health Disparity/Inequality
Fall injuries are the major cause of disability and mortality among elderly people in society. The risk for unintended injuries is high in the elderly population aged 65 years old and above, which is equivalent to 16 percent of the population (Wehner-Hewson et al., 2021). The risk is high because of the long-term care that may be needed due to health disparities and inequalities. The aspects that can lead to the fall may comprise reduced mobility, muscle weakness, chronic illnesses, or gait issues (Kvietkutė & Dudonienė, 2020). In addition, some of the injuries can be associated with medical errors and medication, and chronic illnesses such as Parkinson’s heart illness that increase unintentional injuries.
Prevention Resources and Primary Community
The prevention resources and primary community relevant to the health problems are the county unit of family and job services, and the county health department. The unit of family and job services comprises elder abuse prevention advocates, government entitlement services, and caseworker assignments. Further, the county health unit offers primary prevention resources, for example, preventive healthcare services and cancer screening. The resources are essential to the avoidance of unintentional injuries by improving education and awareness of residents, workers, and other stakeholders (Rossler et al., 2022). The focus is to enhance senior physical activity and behavioral changes to minimize fall-associated injuries.
Underlying Causes
The primary causes of fall-related injuries comprise medication intake and chronic illnesses that can influence the functions and judgment of older adults. Other causes comprise the history of falling, age, and the existence of insufficient personnel in nursing homes (Emerson, 2022). Insufficient personnel often contribute to existing workers experiencing complexity in catering to the needs of staff in a timely way, which may lead to older adults falling.
(B2) Evidence-Based Practice
In a way to alleviate unintentional fall injuries, increased nursing home staffing is developed as an important element. Unintentional fall injuries prevention in the elderly found that the role of a nurse in mitigating comprised patient education, patient assessment, management of physical activity programs, and follow-up post interventions (Chidume, 2021). It is noted that educational elements are important in improving the behavior of the elderly and those who are caring for them by enhancing their awareness of the causes and aspects affecting their activities.
Data Identification
Many older adults in the country have reported increased cases of fall-related injuries. Annually, approximately 30 percent of elderly who are aged 65 years and above report incidents (Rossler et al., 2022). For example, in 2017, unintentional injuries contributed to over 50,000 mortalities among the elderly population, and falls accounted for over 50% of the cases (Chidume, 2021). In the United States (US), the fall mortality rates from 2007 to 2016 among older adults aged 65 years and above increased by 4% (Wehner-Hewson et al., 2021). The rise of unintentional fall injuries by the elderly population has become a considerable economic and health issue.
Development of the Community Health Nursing Social Media Marketing Campaign: Social Media Campaign Goal
The main goal of the social media campaign is to enhance senior physical activity and behavioral changes to minimize fall-associated injuries. The main objective is to increase physical activity among the elderly population by mitigating unintentional fall-associated injuries.
The secondary goals comprise:
- To improve positive health outcomes for the elderly population in rehabilitation programs and nursing homes
- To improve the education of nursing personnel on better quality of care offered to senior citizens
Social Media Marketing Interventions
The main two social media marketing interventions that could be exploited comprise educational videos and influencer marketing. Educational videos may be posted on different social media networking sites. The educational videos can comprise innovatively generated and designed videos that last from 5 to 20 minutes. Each video may address the causative aspects that elevate the risk of unintentional fall-related injuries in the elderly population in the US. The videos may be essential to the current health complexities by improving access to information on how to enhance the health situations of senior citizens. Influencer marketing intervention will be applied by comprising organizations and people on social media networking sites that are considered professionals by nursing staff and older adults in rehabilitation programs and nursing homes.
Social Media Networking Site Description
Many older people use Facebook to a higher extent than the way they use other social media sites and act as the best site. The site is where people can share their updates on the practice while persistently reminding employees and the elderly about current health issues. It serves as the most credible reference for the elderly and the associated employees to access the needed information.
YouTube
A given YouTube channel may be established in which videos relevant to elderly people and employees in nursing homes may be uploaded. The platform presents a unique approach to engaging with patients as videos may be devised to be informative and interesting. In addition, the older adults will have the capability of sharing the created videos with other members of the elderly population to guarantee that information is passed across the wider group in society.
Guidelines and Best Practices
While devising the social media campaign, many guidelines and best practices may be considered. The best approach may be used in the use of Facebook as one of the more extensive incorporated health communication plans. The system may be created to guarantee that the gathering of Facebook posts, events, fan posts, comments, and hidden posts complies with current federal guidelines for archiving and records management.
Stakeholder Responsibilities and Roles
This individual in the group can be responsible for generating original content by working with health experts. The editor may gauge the type and quality of content and may have several roles and responsibilities:
- Meeting with the marketing group to brainstorm on the marketing plan
- Engage with content creators and influencers to structure participative social content
- Review, edit, and proofread completed work before it is posted
Customer Care
This is a person responsible for consumer feedback on various platforms of social media by addressing consumer questions. The responsibilities entail;
- React to consumer comments, questions, and feedback.
- Assess consumer feedback to emphasize content creation gaps and opportunities in health education.
Potential Private and Public Partnerships
Rhode County Health department
The health department aims to minimize the health and economic costs related to older adults’ unintentional injuries in the county. Their roles include:
- Offering health services as per the identified gaps
- Offer relevant health information for a more efficient campaign.
- Increase intervention accessibility by uploading website links.
Nursing Homes
The county nursing homes will function as successful partners through functions like:
- Enroll staff in educational content accessible in the platforms of social media.
- Support guidelines and practices application taught via interventions.
Timeline
The intervention of social media will entail different stakeholders’ inclusion and substantial planning. As per the current project needs, the social media intervention timeline is anticipated to be:
Evaluation
It will be performed through recorded fall rates assessment for the elderly within the county. With the health department of the county’s collaboration, the team will access data on fall rates within nursing homes and the six months rehabilitation programs following the existing fall rates and interventions. The social media involvement target is to reduce fall rates to 50 percent. Thus, a decline in these rates will display successful interventions of social media and educate the staff and older adults within nursing homes.
(E 5) Campaign Implementation Cost
Social media marketing reflection
According to this experience, it is evident that community nurses for health may apply the platforms of social media to search for health information and reach out for patients in a local community. In addition, they can use the platforms of social media to upload and post information required to educate community members on existing challenges and health problems.
Future Nursing Practice Reflection
In future, I plan to utilize social media by engaging in interactive communication with the audience. As a means of enhancing patients’ engagement in desired actions of health, I will seek answer and question sessions on the social media platform while seeking feedback on available initiatives of wellness.
References
Chidume, T. (2021). Promoting older adult fall prevention education and awareness in a community setting: A nurse-led intervention. Applied Nursing Research, 57(1), 151392.
Emerson, P. N. (2022). Fall-risk assessment and intervention to reduce fall-related injuries and hospitalization among older adults. The Journal for Nurse Practitioners, 3(2), 1-18.
Kvietkutė, I., & Dudonienė, V. (2020). The effect of specific balance training exercises for preventing falls among elderly women. Reabilitacijos mokslai: slauga, kineziterapija, ergoterapija, 1(6), 313-328.
Rossler, A., Wheeler, J. M., & Thiamwong, L. (2022). A multidimensional approach for nurse practitioners to screen fall risk and fear of falling in community-dwelling older adults. The Journal for Nurse Practitioners, 3(2), 277-289.
Strommen, J., Brotherson, S. E., & Yang, Z. (2017). Older adult knowledge and behavior change in the stepping on fall prevention program in a community setting. Journal of Human Sciences and Extension, 3(1), 1-18.
Wehner-Hewson, N., Watts, P., Buscombe, R., Bourne, N., & Hewson, D. (2021). Racial and ethnic differences in falls among older adults: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Journal of Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities, 9(6), 2427-2440.