Social Problems in a Hospital? Please Help?

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Hello! I am a high school junior with a strong interest in nursing. I joined this site a month ago to learn a little more. But now im asking for a little help.. For my senior project we must choose a social issue in a community. After having trouble finding a topic, i was told to choose something i am passionate about and i automatically thought of nursing. So, would anyone have any advice as to what i could choose? I was thinking maybe a hospital based problem. I was looking into volunteering at my local hospital anyway and for the project we must do community service that is associated with our topic. Even if you do not see it as a "social" issue, please share it with me. I am pressed for time because i have taken a long time to decide. Anything would help me. Issues in nursing that affect a community? Issues in healthcare that affect a community? I apologize if this is not very acceptable to post but you all seem very helpful to others that are new to the site and i do not personally know anyone involved in nursing. Thank you in advance.

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I am not sure I understand your homework.

Perhaps look what is an issue in your community in terms of healthcare, education, income and go from there. For example if nutrition is a problem because the community has a higher number of residents who live below, close or just above the poverty line they may not be able to afford food at all times - a food bank would be a corresponding volunteer place.

Hospitals usually do not take volunteers under the age of 18 in my area.

Another approach would be what kind of popular places there are in your community and see how they serve the community - for example YMCA - check that place out and see if they do something in terms of education for example - perhaps you could volunteer with home work help for kids who have problems in education.

In case I do not get it right and made strange or unhelpful suggestions - sorry.

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I think if your assignment is to look at a social issue in the community you should look at the community programs that address specific problems such as drunk driving (MADD), or suicide prevention (Helplines) etc.

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If you go with nutella's suggestion to look at the social determinents of health, you could focus on one particular area such as school breakfast programs.

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Thank you!

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I am not sure I understand your homework.

Perhaps look what is an issue in your community in terms of healthcare, education, income and go from there. For example if nutrition is a problem because the community has a higher number of residents who live below, close or just above the poverty line they may not be able to afford food at all times - a food bank would be a corresponding volunteer place.

Hospitals usually do not take volunteers under the age of 18 in my area.

Another approach would be what kind of popular places there are in your community and see how they serve the community - for example YMCA - check that place out and see if they do something in terms of education for example - perhaps you could volunteer with home work help for kids who have problems in education.

In case I do not get it right and made strange or unhelpful suggestions - sorry.

thanks for your comment. as for the volunteering age limit, I have spoken with a few people in charge of volunteering at my local hospital and they said that I would be allowed too. not sure why they let younger people in but hey, I'm not complaining. I realize that there are many places that might seem more fit for a community problem but I am just looking for something involving nursing at first. if there is no options, I will precede with options like you mentioned (food bank, ymca, etc) I also realize that a social problem in a hospital is not very easy to find. at least something that is project-worthy. but I'm hopeful that I will find something. thank you for your help. I'm sorry that I was not too good at explaining my assignment. I'm not the best at explaining as I was attempting to not make the post too long (:

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Specializes in ER.

Homelessness. Abused patients by family. Alcoholism. Drug addiction

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Social determinents of health and community problems are part of community health and important areas for nurses to understand.

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Specializes in Case mgmt., rehab, (CRRN), LTC & psych.

Duplicate threads have been merged into one single thread.

Since the member who originally posted this thread is a high school student, the thread has been moved to the Pre-Nursing forum.

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Duplicate threads have been merged into one single thread.

Since the member who originally posted this thread is a high school student, the thread has been moved to the Pre-Nursing forum.

my bad. thank you for correcting me (:

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Eating disorder might be a good topic. It's a health problem that hospitals have to deal with often, and it's a social problems that lots of communities face.

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Eating disorder might be a good topic. It's a health problem that hospitals have to deal with often, and it's a social problems that lots of communities face.

thanks!

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