CHN Act 7

As a student nurse, how can you help clients in the community promote the
program in reproductive health?

Community health nurses play an important role in the reproductive health of a
population and although most communities in the country have some form of
infrastructure related to the delivery of healthcare services pertaining to maternal and
child health, these health systems are often weak and poorly coordinated with other
health services. In this regard, a student nurse in the community setting has the
responsibility of formulating interventions which seeks to address the issues regarding
the design and delivery of health and related services which are conducive to the
improvement of reproductive health. Organizing the efficient delivery of these services
does not necessitate that we start from scratch, rather, it requires the strengthening of
coordination, integration and the diversifying of existing health services so that
community health nurses can cater to the reproductive needs of the population as a
whole.
In order to do this, one needs to address four areas of jurisdiction, namely: family
planning, adolescent sexual and reproductive health and advocating for programs which
prevent violence against women. This can be done by improving the access to quality
family health planning and other reproductive health services such as the integrating the
prevention and treatment of reproductive tract infections in the community setting. And
although family planning introduces health services which help prevent and alleviate
health risks, it is important that we also consider the complex cultural and societal
norms which may affect the widespread implementation of these services. Thus, as
student nurses, it is important that we offer age-appropriate sex education and provide
teenagers which adolescent friendly contraceptives in order to ensure that the young
people within our respective communities have the tools and comprehensive sex
education they need to protect themselves before their first sexual experience. Student
nurses must make sure that the information they deliver is intended to the appropriate
audience and with the rise of social media we must be able to design nursing
interventions that go beyond an individual level and also include contextual factors.
These include promoting an environment where they can feel safe and communicate
with caring adults and professionals and bring about change in social and gender norms
which may be detrimental to their emotional and reproductive health.
Gender norms in our society usually dictate for a girl to be the epitome of purity and
sexual submissiveness while boys are encouraged to be sexually adventurous. This
type of machismo and institutionalized gender norm promotes the acceptance of
gender-based violence and places girls at a higher risk for teenage pregnancy.
Implementing effective public health measures which promote reproductive health go
beyond comprehensive health education and providing an expanded access to the use
of condoms and other contraceptives. As student nurses, we must also advocate for the
implementation of extensive education programs which serve to keep both girls and
boys in school. We must always look towards providing our clients with the necessary
short-term and long term interventions that are tailored to their needs and extending
these advocacies within a population group at a young age helps children develop and
make informed decisions about their own reproductive health. This is simply because
staying at school provides a protective effect as educated adolescents are less likely to
engage in risky sexual practices and get pregnant at a young age.
References:
WHO | The WHO Strategic Approach to strengthening sexual and reproductive health
policies and programmes. (n.d.). Retrieved September 23, 2020, from WHO website:
https://www.who.int/reproductivehealth/topics/countries/strategic_approach/en/
‌
Health, N. R. C. (US) P. on R., Tsui, A. O., Wasserheit, J. N., & Haaga, J. G. (1997).
Program Design and Implementation. In www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov. Retrieved from
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK233290/
‌
Melgar, J. L. D., Melgar, A. R., Festin, M. P. R., Hoopes, A. J., & Chandra-Mouli, V.
(2018). Assessment of country policies affecting reproductive health for adolescents in
the Philippines. Reproductive Health, 15(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12978-018-0638-9
‌
Stover, J., Hardee, K., Ganatra, B., García-Moreno, C., & Horton, S. (2016).
Interventions to Improve Reproductive Health. Disease Control Priorities, Third Edition
(Volume 2): Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn, and Child Health, 95–114.
https://doi.org/10.1596/978-1-4648-0348-2_ch6
‌

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As a student nurse, how can you help clients in the community promote the

program in reproductive health?

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