Community Health Nursing
Community health nursing focuses on primary health care, epidemiology, national health programmes and family welfare. Items test levels of prevention, cold-chain rules and notification of diseases.
Core rules
- Levels of prevention: primary (immunisation, health education), secondary (screening, early treatment) and tertiary (rehabilitation).
- National programmes include NTEP for tuberculosis with DOTS, NVBDCP for vector-borne diseases, NPCDCS for non-communicable diseases and RMNCH+A for maternal and child health.
- Cold chain: most vaccines are kept at 2–8 °C; OPV is stored frozen at −20 °C; avoid freezing adsorbed vaccines such as DPT, hepatitis B and PCV. Vaccine vial monitors indicate heat exposure.
- Epidemiology: incidence counts new cases; prevalence counts all existing cases at a point or period.
Worked example
A village reports several measles cases in one week. The nurse isolates cases, gives vitamin A, checks vaccination status, alerts the surveillance system and supports an outbreak response immunisation. Reasoning: measles is highly contagious; vitamin A reduces complications, while notification is legally required.
Traps
Calling prevalence an incidence measure; freezing DPT or hepatitis B; forgetting notification; confusing primary prevention with screening.