Essay on the Role of Registered Nurse in Addressing Obesity

The rate of Childhood obesity in the United States and other parts of the world has tripled over the past three decades. In its actuality, more than 1 in every three children and the adolescents have been reported to be overweight or obese (Thomas, 2016). These conditions make the affected individuals highly susceptible to various risks such as diabetes, hypertension, and high body cholesterol. Due to the respect and the trust that registered nurses demonstrate towards the patients, community and the whole society, it is undeniable that these nurses are tremendously powerful in influencing the factors that lead to childhood and adulthood obesity. Ideally, they can perform this on both the individual and the community levels.

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According to Lundy & Janes (2009), the registered nurses can address the issue of obesity through taking healthy food demonstrations into a given community. It is important to recognize that the consumption of unhealthy and unbalanced food is a primary cause of obesity in a human being. To adequately address this issue, the registered nurses can make efforts to enhance and promote appropriate health education. In this sense, the community members will get equipped with the required knowledge regarding which type of food to consume at a given time and depending on their bodies requirement.

According to Barlow and Dietz (2002), factors such as parents work schedule, the walkability and neighbourhoods safety, the accessibility to the grocery, the existing school lunch mandates and the accessibility to healthcare play crucial roles in the feeding habits of individuals, especially children. Inadequate nutritional knowledge on the part of the parents and the limited coaching ability needed for healthy lifestyle further influence obesity prevalence. Registered nurses can, therefore, organize for door-to-door programs which are aimed at increasing the familys knowledge on obesity, its causes and manifestations and how to avoid it.

In nations such as Canada, a considerable number of registered nurses developed the campaigns aimed at increasing the awareness regarding the obesity as a health issue and its implications on an individuals well-being (Thomas, 2016). Undeniably, the registered nurses can adopt these approaches which may help host free healthy kids days at a community level. Addressing issues such as the weight are very sensitive issues, and in most cases, the experts do not like losing trust with their patients. Several studies have shown that individuals who feel judged regarding their weight have high chances of adding extra pounds. The community campaigns act like the caring approaches in scripting and invite patients and families to share their concerns and thoughts with the registered nurses. In its actuality, this approach assists the nurses to know the type of assistance the family seeks. Within the community hospitals, the registered nurses also have the power to address the obesity as a health issue (Thomas, 2016). In reality, they may be involved in various kinds of presentations to help the nurses assess paediatric patients. In the same way, they may assist other trained staffs in scripting for an active discussion of the weight-related issues with the obese patients.

Finally, registered nurses can seek a permit from the government and consequently link with other nutrition experts to conduct inspections on community chain restaurants with the aim of disclosing their calorie counts for the items offered. All these efforts will ensure that the dining people are enlightened and made aware of the food items available, and therefore help people make healthy decisions regarding their consumptions habit (Barlow and Dietz, 2002).

Reference List

Barlow, S.E. and Dietz, W.H., 2002. Management of child and adolescent obesity: summary and recommendations based on reports from paediatricians, paediatric nurse practitioners, and registered dieticians. Pediatrics, 110(Supplement 1), pp.236-238.

Lundy, K. S., & Janes, S. (2009). Community health nursing: Caring for the public's health. Sudbury, Mass: Jones and Bartlett Publishers.

Thomas, D., 2016. Addressing childhood obesity in America: Analysis of four nationally available health programs and future recommendations (Doctoral dissertation, Utica College)