Nursing core concepts
Nursing core concepts include dealing with individuals, families, communities, groups, and clients. Health promotion and risk reduction are fundamental principles in public or community health. Community health necessitates the use of contemporary knowledge acquired from social and biological sciences, as well as the participation of community health groups (Neis & McEwen, 2015). A community nurse's engagement with a family or client may last for a long time, involving various forms of healthcare for people of all ages. As a result, community nurses have the opportunity to form long-term relationships with their patients. Most importantly, the benefits of community health extend to the individual, family, and community as a whole. This unit of service contains a double focus whereby the nurse is concerned with subgroups in the community (Hellesø & Fagermoen, 2010). Based on these concepts, it can, therefore, be deduced that community nursing focuses on lowering the risk of patients demanding hospital treatments, promoting health, early detection of disease, maintaining a degree of balance towards health and having restorative, rehabilitative and facilitation care measures.
Hospital-based nursing
Hospital-based nursing, on the contrary, entails dealing with illnesses after they have progressed. The hospital nurses are usually population-oriented and have a single focus within a more controlled environment (Hellesø & Fagermoen, 2010). Unlike in community nursing where medical autonomy is delegated, these nurses work under the medical authority of a physician. For this reason, the hospital nurse cannot plan and implement care measures for patients. The primary focus is on the treatment and care of the sick, as well as, restoring an individual’s balance towards health. Notably, their interaction with patients may be once in a lifetime making it difficult to develop long-term relationships.
Collaboration between community and hospital healthcare systems
Conclusively, despite the differences between community and hospital healthcare systems, there is the need for the systems to work collaboratively to ensure continuity of care. Healthcare systems need to focus on the seamless provision of healthcare and the quality interaction between the healthcare systems can guarantee the continuity of care.
References
Hellesø, R., & Fagermoen, M. S. (2010). Cultural diversity between hospital and community nurses: implications for continuity of care. International Journal of Integrated Care, 10, e036.
Nies, M. A., & McEwen, M. (2015). Community/ Public Health Nursing (6th ed.). St. Louis, MO: Elsevier Saunders.
