hey guys Im in nursing school and doing a community project about prenatal care. My group's focus is on high risk pregnancies such as young mothers, drug abusers, alcohol abusers and smokers. I need community opinions about this subject. The teacher is not very specific about the info he wants except "what the community perceives as the problem". Could anyone give me some opinions to include? :chair:

hey guys Im in nursing school and doing a community project about prenatal care. My group's focus is on high risk pregnancies such as young mothers, drug abusers, alcohol abusers and smokers. I need community opinions about this subject. The teacher is not very specific about the info he wants except "what the community perceives as the problem". Could anyone give me some opinions to include? :chair:

I'm a community/public health nurse and work with pregnant women who are considered "high risk" for a number of different reasons. I'm more than happy to offer help but I'm not really sure what you're asking for: perceived problems from the communitie's perspective or the provider's perspective?

If your local health dept. provides prenatal care, call and ask to make an appt. with the director of the service (usually but not always a nurse). Your community may have different issues that you can focus on. For example, crystal meth is not a huge problem where I live (yet), but it may be in your area. Or you may have culture-type issues that are unique to your community (a large Hmong, African, Hispanic, or Muslim population, for example, that makes innovative care necessary to meet the needs of the clients).

If you are doing a community project, part of the learning involves learning what resources are available for the people in your area.

Good luck! Sounds like a fun way to learn about your community!

If you could ask your instructor to be more specific as to what he/she is looking for, I am sure there are many of us who would love to help.

Good luck on the project!

sorry guys I wish he would be more specific, but this teacher will not help us out in that (or any) department. I get very frustrated with the lack of communication between the faculty and the students. We ask this teacher questions to clarify what he means and he responds by saying "its there in the syllabus, all you have to do is read it." I quoted the syllabus in my previous postings so if all of you are not getting the instructions, I don't know how I can understand it. Any info would help at this point.

Well, the community may perceive many things as problems (and so does nursing/medicine). Here are some of them that come to my mind:

Lack of education about many things, to include basic self-care/health maintanence, birth control methods

Low self-esteem among certain mothers/pregnant women

Lack of basic medical care or access to such

Lack of resources---money, counseling, jobs, etc.

Family structure breakdown---parents , significant other, other family members, either abusive or neglectful or simply not present in the mother's life

Lack of social support (society at large)

Poor health of the patient prior to and during pregnancy

Non-compliance/non-cooperation with health care planning/suggestions by health care personnel

A variety of abuses/addictions to substances, drugs, alcohol, etc.

These are all contributory to high risk situations and poor outcomes.

You can expound on any of them at will. Does this help?

BTW: good luck on your project. Sorry your instructor is being such a putz.

hey guys Im in nursing school and doing a community project about prenatal care. My group's focus is on high risk pregnancies such as young mothers, drug abusers, alcohol abusers and smokers. I need community opinions about this subject. The teacher is not very specific about the info he wants except "what the community perceives as the problem". Could anyone give me some opinions to include? :chair:

If this is the exact quote from your syllabus, it sounds to me like the opinions need to come from the community of high risk pregnant women in your area, or those working with them. You can always talk to nurses who work for your local health dept in prenatal care/education. They would probably be able to give you the most insight regarding the needs in your specific area.

A big problem where I work is lack of access to health care--the large immigrant population does not qualify for medical assistance and there are not enough Spanish speaking providers to meet the needs of the growing Latino pop. But, this is just where I work...

Good luck!