NURS FPX 6026 Assessment 1 Analysis of Position Papers for Vulnerable Populations

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Capella university

NURS-FPX 6026 Biopsychosocial Concepts for Advanced Nursing Practice 2

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Date

Analysis of Position Papers for Vulnerable Populations

Obesity in low-income African American communities is a pressing health issue exacerbated by food deserts, limited healthcare access, and inadequate facilities for workout or physical activity. This population faces incidences of chronic diseases like type 2 diabetes and hypertension. A complete interprofessional approach involves nurses, dietitians, public health experts, social workers, and mental health professionals essential for obesity. Community-based initiatives, like improved food access and physical activity programs, are key to addressing individual behaviors and systemic barriers. This strategy aims to lessen medical disparities and boost long-term medical results. 

Team’s Position Related to the Issue and Assumptions

Obesity is a significant health issue affecting low-income African American communities in urban areas. This population has to bear a higher rate of obesity due to food with limited nutrition, deserts of food, and lack of physical activity. These challenges result in the increased prevalence of chronic illnesses like type 2 diabetes, heart diseases and hypertension, hence decreasing quality of life and increasing healthcare costs. For better overall health outcomes, addressing obesity within this population is highly needed to reduce preventable diseases.

The National Health and Nutrition Survey (NHANES) exposed that obesity disproportionately affects African American adults, with a prevalence frequency of 49.7%, significantly progressive than other ethnic groups. Among blacks, obesity is dominant in women (56.9%) compared to men (41.1%) (Lofton, 2023). The target population for this intervention is African American children and adults in low-income urban areas. This group is mainly at risk due to systemic challenges such as socioeconomic constraints, limited access to healthcare, and environmental barriers that restrict opportunities for healthy living. Overcoming these challenges is crucial for improving health outcomes in this community and addressing the obesity epidemic.

NURS FPX 6026 Assessment 1 Analysis of Position Papers for Vulnerable Populations

The current care for obesity within these communities usually involves generalized weight loss programs and health education. Still, there needs to be more interventions, given the systemic barriers to care. Consequently, the rates of obesity continue to increase, and so does the prevalence of chronic conditions associated with it. Health outcomes are generally poor, with a high burden of preventable diseases (Tiwari & Balasundaram, 2023). Our interprofessional team, including nurses, dietitians, public health professionals, and community leaders, proposes a complete approach to improving obesity care. This approach involves utilizing community resources like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), urban gardens, and local food pantries to increase access to healthy food (Saxena et al., 2022). School-based programs such as “Let’s Move!” and neighborhood walking initiatives can promote physical activity, while mental health services and support groups will address emotional eating behaviors (Yuksel et al., 2020).

Other underlying assumptions in this plan include the belief that increased healthy food and healthcare access would facilitate an enabling environment wherein individuals make healthy lifestyle choices; involvement may lead to greater engagement in activities with more trust overall, thus contributing to good health outcomes. Acting in this position is vital because of the long-term consequences of obesity, chronic illness, reduced life expectancy, and healthcare disparities that disproportionately affect African American populations (Lofton, 2023). We can create effective, culturally competent interventions by implementing evidence-based guidelines from organizations like the American Heart Association. These efforts will reduce health disparities by promoting healthier lifestyles and improving outcomes. It ensures equitable healthcare for these vulnerable communities.

Interprofessional Team Approach and Challenges

An interprofessional team is essential in addressing obesity in low-income African American communities. Barriers such as food deserts, limited access to healthcare, and insufficient opportunities for physical activity contribute to high obesity rates. The team will include nurses, dietitians, public health experts, social workers, mental health professionals, and community leaders. Each member will play a crucial role in delivering comprehensive care.

Nurses will also educate the patient in making appropriate health-related decisions, keep track of the patient’s health status, and make recommendations on what other healthcare workers the patient should see in obesity (Zelenytė et al., 2021). Based on the guidelines, dietitians will provide a detailed nutrition plan and help the community make the right eating choices. Public nutrition specialists will identify gaps in public health, champion policy shifts, and facilitate communities to embrace healthy food and physical activity.  Social workers will resolve social determinants of healthcare like food shortage, insecurity and housing variability and connect families with local resources (Zelenytė et al., 2021). Mental health professionals will tackle behavioral aspects of obesity, such as emotional eating and stress management. Finally, community leaders will ensure cultural relevance by engaging the population and providing feedback to improve the interventions.

NURS FPX 6026 Assessment 1 Analysis of Position Papers for Vulnerable Populations

An interprofessional approach ensures a complete and integrated solution by combining expertise across diverse fields to address obesity’s multifaceted causes, physical, mental, and social (Norman, 2024). Collaboration allows for a more sustainable care plan that is patient-centered and considers the unique challenges the target population faces. This team approach is very important because obesity is complex, and no one discipline can adequately address all of the causes of obesity.

Such teamwork enables comprehensive interventions that would support people in making healthier choices and also address larger community barriers (Norman, 2024). However, this also means potential problems might arise, including differences of opinion and communication barriers. These can be lessened by clearly defining the goals to be achieved by the team, mutual respect, and communication among the members. Interdisciplinary collaboration is critical to meeting all the challenges confronting obesity and enhancing health consequences within an African American setting.

Evaluating Supporting Evidence and Knowledge Gaps

To improve obesity care in low-income African American communities, various evidence and position papers emphasize the importance of comprehensive, community-based approaches. One important piece of evidence emphasises the use of multidisciplinary interventions involving nutrition, physical activities, and behavioral health. Our interprofessional team has also emphasized that various professionals, like nurses, dieticians, and mental health professionals, are coming together for holistic care (Zelenytė et al., 2021).

Additionally, the Let’s Move! Initiative, a government program, provides evidence of success in promoting physical activity and nutrition in low-income communities. It supports including school-based programs and community engagement in our interprofessional team’s work (Park et al., 2021). Systematic reviews on obesity interventions demonstrate that community-based, culturally relevant interventions yield high effectiveness, especially in cases where local leaders and stakeholders are involved. This confirms our team’s intended approach of incorporating community leaders into the intervention process to enhance cultural appropriateness, build trust, and ultimately engage the target group.

NURS FPX 6026 Assessment 1 Analysis of Position Papers for Vulnerable Populations

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) also overcome food insecurity and improves access to healthier food options. However, while SNAP provides support, evidence suggests it may not be sufficient to fully address the complexities of obesity in food deserts where access to nutritious foods is still limited. Our interprofessional team recognizes the need to ensure SNAP works alongside other community programs to improve food access and support long-term dietary changes (Saxena et al., 2022).

These points of evidence support our team’s stance. Still, there are gaps in knowledge and a lack of certainty regarding the durability of such interventions in populations with low access to care. Issues about mental health integration in obesity care remain undecided due to the lack of knowledge relating to the improvement of mental well-being within obese patients and its influence on the status of obesity in the long term. Finally, our interprofessional team recognizes the need for future studies about food deserts, mental health, obesity, and the feasibility of implementing interprofessional programs (Pizzi & Amir, 2024). Filling these gaps will allow for continued advancement in the field, a more informed understanding of what challenges remain in serving the target population, and, ultimately, improving the long-term health of this population.

Evaluating Contrary Sources of Evidence

While there is substantial evidence supporting the need for improvements in obesity care for low-income African American communities, some positions argue that the current level of care and outcomes is sufficient. For example, some studies could be attributed to the individual responsibility model, which focuses on personal modifications such as diet and exercise (Wadden et al., 2020). From the above positions, it can be argued that instilling personal responsibility and discipline in an individual would develop into positive, healthy improvements, a factor strengthened by improved resource endowment in higher-income zones. However, this approach ignores the system constraints that low-income people face regarding healthy foods, safe places to engage in physical activities and mental health support services.

An individual-focused approach fails to address broader social determinants of health, like food deserts and psychological stress, which significantly contribute to obesity in marginalized communities. This contrasts with the position of our interprofessional team, which advocates for multidisciplinary interventions that promote behavior change and address such systemic barriers. Our interprofessional team identifies that obesity is multifaceted, necessitating comprehensive approaches incorporating medical, behavioral, and social support (Alkhatry, 2024). 

Our interprofessional team responds to these counterarguments by highlighting the efficacy of community-based interventions like Let’s Move! and SNAP in addressing obesity. Environmental modification and access are stressed in these programs, hence supporting individual and collective efforts against obesity. Indeed, such integrated approaches, which combine nutrition, physical activity, and mental health services, have been proven to be much more effective than solely emphasizing individual responsibility. In considering the opposing views, we can secure the support of other members of an interprofessional team and show that only a multi-faceted, community-based approach can be valuable for patients with obesity and low-income African Americans (Kumanyika, 2022). This eliminates the possibility of overlooking some group behaviors while providing a lasting solution for each of them.

Conclusion 

Addressing obesity within the setting of low-income African American communities must be holistic and interprofessional, addressing individual behaviors and system barriers. Tapping into community resources and increasing access to healthy food and physical activity will, in turn, reduce the rates of obesity and its comorbidities. Healthcare providers, social workers, and community leaders must collaborate to provide culturally appropriate and sustainable solutions. This will improve health outcomes and decrease health disparities within these vulnerable populations.

References 

Alkhatry, M. (2024). Understanding and managing obesity: A multidisciplinary approach. In www.intechopen.com. IntechOpen. https://www.intechopen.com/online-first/1176701 

Kumanyika, S. K. (2022). Advancing health equity efforts to reduce obesity: Changing the course. Annual Review of Nutrition, 42(1). https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-nutr-092021-050805 

Lofton, H., Ard, J. D., Hunt, R. R., & Knight, M. G. (2023). Obesity among African American people in the United States: A review. Obesity, 31(2), 306–315. https://doi.org/10.1002/oby.23640 

Norman, K. (2024). Obesity management in rural new zealand general practice from a healthcare professional and client perspectives. Researchcommons.waikato.ac.nz. https://researchcommons.waikato.ac.nz/handle/10289/16305

NURS FPX 6026 Assessment 1 Analysis of Position Papers for Vulnerable Populations

Park, J., Ten Hoor, G. A., Baek, S., Chung, S., Kim, Y.-H., & Hwang, G. (2021). The Let’s Eat Healthy and Move at School program for adolescents in South Korea: Program design, implementation, and evaluation plan using intervention mapping. Child Health Nursing Research, 27(3), 225–242. https://doi.org/10.4094/chnr.2021.27.3.225 

Pizzi, M., & Amir, M. (2024). Interprofessional Perspectives for Community Practice. Google Books. https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=gdsLEQAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PT9&dq=our+interprofessional+team+recognizes+the+need+for+future+studies+about+food+deserts 

Saxena, P., Caldwell, J., Ramos, A., Flores, D., Shah, D., & Kuo, T. (2022). Food security, fruit and vegetable intake, and chronic conditions among supplemental nutrition assistance program education participants attending free food and produce events. Obesities, 2(3), 264–275. https://doi.org/10.3390/obesities2030021 

NURS FPX 6026 Assessment 1 Analysis of Position Papers for Vulnerable Populations

Tiwari, A., & Balasundaram, P. (2023). Public Health Considerations Regarding Obesity. PubMed; StatPearls Publishing. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK572122/ 

Wadden, T. A., Tronieri, J. S., & Butryn, M. L. (2020). Lifestyle modification approaches for the treatment of obesity in adults. American Psychologist, 75(2), 235–251. https://doi.org/10.1037/amp0000517 

Yuksel, H. S., Şahin, F. N., Maksimovic, N., Drid, P., & Bianco, A. (2020). School-Based intervention programs for preventing obesity and promoting physical activity and fitness: A systematic review. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 17(1), 347. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17010347 

Zelenytė, V., Valius, L., Domeikienė, A., Gudaitytė, R., Endzinas, Ž., Šumskas, L., & Maleckas, A. (2021). Body size perception, knowledge about obesity and factors associated with lifestyle change among patients, health care professionals and public health experts. BMC Family Practice, 22(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12875-021-01383-2