Professional practice attributes within public health nursing : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Philosophy in Nursing at Massey University

Modifiable organisational attributes that reflect a professional nursing practice environment are important determinants of both the experience of people who access health care services and the job satisfaction of nurses who work within health care organisations. Research relating to acute care settings, commonly known as the Magnet phenomenon has made an outstanding contribution to health sector knowledge by identifying features that attract and retain nurses, promote excellence in patient care, and achieve superior patient outcomes. These features have been studied by the Nursing Work Index Revised which measures attributes that reflect a professional nursing practice environment. More recently there has been an interest in the potential applicability of these attributes in the community setting. A recent study surveyed United States home health nurses and New Zealand district nurses to ascertain which of the Nursing Work Index Revised attributes were perceived by them as important to the support of their professional practice. In this study 92% of items previously tested in acute settings were considered important in community settings. This descriptive study extends the previous work by investigating how another group of primary health care nurses in New Zealand (public health nurses) perceive the importance of specific organisational attributes within their practice setting. The Nursing Work Index Revised was utilised and participants were asked to rate their agreement or disagreement with the importance and presence of 48 attributes on the Nursing Work Index Revised against a 4-point Likert scale. The findings of the study validate the use of the Nursing Work Index Revised as a tool in the community setting. The study's findings, implications for nursing practice, future research and the potential use of this tool to support the development of primary health care nursing in the New Zealand health sector is presented

2014 Silicon Valley Index

The Silicon Valley Index has been telling the Silicon Valley story since 1995. Released early every year, the Index is based on indicators that measure the strength of the economy and the health of the community -- highlighting challenges and providing an analytical foundation for leadership and decision making

The Role of Village Surveillance Officer to Prevent Dengue Hemorrhagic Fever

Dengue is a major public health problem in Indonesia. The program of elimination of mosquito breeding places is still low. This study was aimed to analyze the effectiveness of village surveillance officer for decrease container index. Study design was quasy experiment. The intervention included: community workshops; community involvement in clean-up campaigns; and distribution of information, education and communication materials in the village surveillans officer. Data were analyzed with t test, and path way analyzed. There is significantly differences knowdlege, attitude, behaviour, sanitation, and container index p<0.05. Based on the path analysis was concluded that village surveillance officer increased knowledge, attitude, behavior, sanitation and container index.Surveillance village officer is concluded to be more effectively decreased of larva index through comunity behavior. Surveillance village officer is important because it effectively the coverage of larva index through community behaviour participation

New Hampshire civic health index

The Carsey Institute is participating in a study to examine America\u27s civic health. Led by the Conference on Citizenship (NCoC), America\u27s Civic Health Index is an annual study that measures a wide variety of civic indicators, such as community involvement and helping others. New Hampshire is one of six states partnering with NCoC to produce a state-specific report that examines the civic health in the Granite State

Metropolitan Atlanta: Civic Health Index 2012

At The Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta, we define philanthropy as the giving of time, talent and treasure. We know it takes philanthropy to build thriving communities. We know that thriving communities are engaged communities. They are communities that actively participate in philanthropy and civic engagement. At The Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta, our mission is to strengthen our 23-county region by providing quality services to donors and innovative leadership on community issues. To accomplish this we have to know how involved metro Atlantans are in philanthropy and civic engagement.In 2012, we joined 20 other states and four other cities in producing an annual Civic Health Index. The Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta has prepared this metro Atlanta focused summary on five data points from the 2012 Georgia Civic Health Index specific to metro Atlanta: participation in formal and informal volunteering; participation in groups; social connectedness; electoral participation; and political action. It is our hope that by knowing where we are as a region that we can understand where we need to go in mobilizing our nearly 5.5 million metro area residents to actively get involved in philanthropy and civic engagement to build a greater metro Atlanta

Possible approaches to benchmarking voluntary health insurance funds in Bulgaria

Following the adoption of the Health Insurance Law in Bulgaria (1999), which provided the legal framework for the development of the voluntary health insurance, several health insurance funds had been established. Bulgaria had two licensed voluntary health insurance funds in 2001; in 2003 their number grew to six; and in 2009 this number stands over twenty. Despite the increased number of funds in recent years, their share of healthcare spending stayed at 1-1.5%, which is below European average. To this date, there are no serious and profound studies in the field among the scientific community in Bulgaria. The economic data published by the Commission of Financial Surveillance (CFS), conforms to EC regulations, but do not allow non-specialists to assess realistically voluntary health insurance funds (VHIF). This article introduces a methodology for comparing VHIF and establishment of a complex index (Benchmark Index - BI) based on 5 groups of indicators, related to several available variables. This index is intended as a tool for analyzing the voluntary health insurance sector and managing resources through a set of analytic indicators and variables. It can be used to create a certain type of ranking of VHIF.voluntary health insurance, market, comparing methods, benchmark index

Environmental-Based Disease Prevention Model Based on Disease Vulnerability Index in Kepahiang Regency, Bengkulu Province, Indonesia

Environmental-based diseases in Kepahiang Regency tend to increase annually which will cause death if it is not handled quickly and appropriately. The incidence of the disease becomes the standard of measurement for the Community Health Development Index and Human Development Index. The purpose of this study was to determine the dimensions and indicators of environmental-based disease causes, calculate the disease susceptibility index and create a prevention model based on the disease susceptibility index obtained. The method used in this study is the modified Village Development Index (IPD) method. The environmental-based disease susceptibility index is structured into 7 dimensions, namely health services, health workers, environmental health, population, community behavior, disease control and governance which are arranged into 23 indicators. The highest disease susceptibility index in Kepahiang Regency is the pulmonary TB disease susceptibility index, which is 2.830. The DHF susceptibility index is 2.746 and the lowest is the susceptibility index to diarrhea at 2.456. The susceptibility index of the three diseases is included in the category of potentially vulnerable. If viewed from the index per dimension, the highest index is found in the community behavior dimension. The susceptibility index at the district level,  it was found that Seberang Musi and Muara Kemumu districts had high susceptibility index. The strategy to increase the budget in improving health services, outreach to change people's behavior to be aware of health are potential steps to reduce the status of environmental-based disease vulnerability in Kepahiang Regency

Building community resilience in mine impacted communities : a study on delivery of health services in Papua New Guinea : a thesis presented in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Development Studies at Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand

The purpose of this study was to explore the building of Community Resilience in mine-impacted communities in Papua New Guinea (PNG). The study aimed to establish the general relationship between community resilience, community capitals and the delivery of health services. It investigated the delivery of health services in three mining communities in PNG to see how these services contribute to or detract from the building of resilience. The study investigated relevant models of community resilience from the literature, and how the way policy functions in PNG can be related to these models. The study also developed a way of quantifying the impact of mining on health service delivery (through the use of community capitals) and the building of resilience in these communities. Furthermore, the thesis develops an indigenous, Melanesian-centric ‘Bilum Framework’ approach to resilience to create greater understanding of how resilience in the mining communities can be strengthened through improved access to health services. Three mining communities were selected as case studies, each representing a different stage of mining: (i) the beginning; (ii) the operational; and, (iii) post-mine closure. A mixed method approach comprising both quantitative and qualitative methods was used to collect data for this study. A survey questionnaire was designed to collect views of community members who accessed health services in their respective communities. Results from the survey questionnaire were converted to proxy indicators and led to the development of a Community Resilience Index (CRI) to provide a measure of resilience in each community. The qualitative research methods included document analysis, semi-structured interviews, and purposive observations. Document analysis was important in reviewing relevant policy documents and other literature to link theories to the experiences of the people while the latter methods contributed to describing people’s encounters in accessing health services. Analysis showed inconsistencies in the levels of resilience in these communities that varied with the stages of mining: both the beginning and post- mine closure stages demonstrated significantly lower levels of community resilience than the operational phase. Findings from the research indicated a lack of access to health services – a key influence in building resilience – is the result a range of factors including insufficient finances, weak sector governance, and the need for infrastructure and transport. The Bilum Framework is proposed as an approach that allows decision-makers to target assistance to strengthen and support specific community capitals and hence more effectively build community resilience in the mining communities in PNG

The global human security index: Can disaggregations help us to forge progress?

A Human Security Index (HIS) enumerating 200 countries was introduced in 2008. A community-level HSI is under development in the USA. Coastal communities face large disparities in components of human security. How can a HSI support improved policies/services (such as environmental or public health forecasts or warnings) for improving lives? Several issues are discussed. (PDF contains 4 pages