Assessing Community Empowerment for an Innovative Epidemiologic Approach.

Community empowerment can be a process, but also the result of nursing care. To analyze it as a result there is an instrument that allows to quantify its level in nine domains. According to Melo (2020), health centers can be considered communities, becoming the potential target of community and public health nurses care, especially in the public health unit. One of the main functions of a public health unit is the epidemiological surveillance of the population's health state. However, traditional epidemiological surveillance is focused on diseases and Melo (2020) proposes a new approach for epidemiology focused on people in what concerns nursing diagnosis. The aim of this research is to identify the level of empowerment of four Portuguese primary healthcare structures, named as ACeS, so as to improve the epidemiological surveillance of nursing diagnoses. As methodology, we developed four focus group with all nursing leaders from all primary care units of the four ACeS, using the Portuguese version of the empowerment assessment rating scale. The results present the level of community empowerment of each ACeS according to the nine domains of the scale. The needs of intervention to improve the ACeS empowerment were also identified in order to develop the epidemiological surveillance of nursing diagnoses.

Conhecimento dos enfermeiros antes e após um programa educativo, sobre prevenção de quedas na população idosa em contexto comunitário / Knowledge of nurses before and after an educational program on prevention of falls in elderly population in a community context

Introduction: In good organizational practice, health professionals should be provided with training programs for fall prevention. Aims: To evaluate the impact of an educational program for nurses on the prevention of falls in the elderly population in a community context. Method: This study supports the intervention phase of an Action-Research investigation. Was implemented a training program, with two steps: sensitization (S) and formation (F) held in a group of North Health Centers of Portugal. In the S step, 154 professionals from different areas participated. In the F step, 67 nurses participated. The S step occurred between February and March of 2017. The satisfaction of the training was assesseded. The F step enrolled five sessions, performed between May and June 2017. The target group of this stage were only nurses. In addition to the assessment of training satisfaction, a questionnaire was useded (pre-test). We used descriptive analysis and comparison of means using the IBM SPSS 25.0 software. The Ethics Committee for North Health centers (nº 97/2014) approved the study. Results: In the S step, were represented all the professional areas, but the physi-cians (43.8%) were more representative. In F step, the sample of nurses is mostly female (80.6%), with an age between 32-60 years. The professional activity years of nurses vary between 8 and 36 years. In the overall assessment of training satisfaction, it was verified that the training dimension (mean 3.71 and mean 3.67), respectively in sessions 3 and 5, was the most valued. Conclusion: The program revealed improvement in nurses' knowledge

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Tradução para portuguêse validação cultural da Empowerment Assessment Rating Scale / Translation to Portuguese and cultural validation of the Empowerment Assessment Rating Scale

Introduction: To assess the level of community empowerment, Laverack proposes an instrument called the Empowerment Assessment Rating Scale (EARS), which has nine assessment domains related to community empowerment. Objectives: Translate to Portuguese and culturally validate the EARS for an ACeS community, a hospital community, a business community, and a school community. A review of the Portuguese translation was developed, a review group was set up to analyze the resulting document, by consensus a new scale called the Escala de Avaliação do Empoderamento Comunitário (EAvEC) was developed, and the retroversion was developed. Same review group conducted a new evaluation of the resulting version, comparing them with the original in English. The study was carried out at a Hospital in the Azores Archipelago, three Health Centers Organizations in the North of Portugal, an Education-oriented Company in Greater Porto and a School Community in Mozambique, where the focus group scale was applied based on a problematic chosen for intervention. Results: EVaEC retained the nine evaluation domains of the original scale and its translated version did not change after its cultural adaptation. The level of community empowerment was identified in each of the communities, analyzed in the form of a radar chart, with the clustered image of all domains. Discussion / Conclusions: EVaEC is a useful tool for community intervention and is being used to assess community empowerment in the MAIEC project of theCentre for Interdisciplinary Research in Health at Universidade Católica Portuguesa

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Record of the circumstances of falls in the community: perspective in the Iberian Peninsula.

OBJECTIVE: to determine the diagnosis of the situation regarding documentation of falls and risk of falls in people older than 75 years in basic health units in Spain and Portugal. METHOD: mixed exploratory study in two stages: (i) quantitative descriptive of randomly selected fall records produced in one year (597 records; 197 Spanish and 400 Portuguese); and (ii) qualitative, with the purpose of knowing the perception of health professionals employing semi-structured interviews (72 professionals, 16 Spanish and 56 Portuguese). The study areas were two basic health units in southern Spain and northern Portugal. RESULTS: in the fall records, the number of women was higher. The presence of fall was associated with the variables age, presence of dementia, osteoarticular disease, previous falls and consumption of antivertiginous medication. Health professionals perceived an absence of risk assessment instruments, as well as lack of prevention programs and lack of awareness of this event. CONCLUSION: falls are perceived as an area of ​​priority attention for health professionals. Nonetheless, there is a lack of adherence to the registration of falls and risk assessment, due to organizational, logistical and motivational problems.

Record of the circumstances of falls in the community: perspective in the Iberian Peninsula / Registro das circunstancias das quedas no âmbito comunitário: perspectiva na Península Ibérica / Registro de las circunstancias de las caídas en el ámbito comunitario: Perspectiva en la península ibérica

ABSTRACT Objective: to determine the diagnosis of the situation regarding documentation of falls and risk of falls in people older than 75 years in basic health units in Spain and Portugal. Method: mixed exploratory study in two stages: (i) quantitative descriptive of randomly selected fall records produced in one year (597 records; 197 Spanish and 400 Portuguese); and (ii) qualitative, with the purpose of knowing the perception of health professionals employing semi-structured interviews (72 professionals, 16 Spanish and 56 Portuguese). The study areas were two basic health units in southern Spain and northern Portugal. Results: in the fall records, the number of women was higher. The presence of fall was associated with the variables age, presence of dementia, osteoarticular disease, previous falls and consumption of antivertiginous medication. Health professionals perceived an absence of risk assessment instruments, as well as lack of prevention programs and lack of awareness of this event. Conclusion: falls are perceived as an area of ​​priority attention for health professionals. Nonetheless, there is a lack of adherence to the registration of falls and risk assessment, due to organizational, logistical and motivational problems.

RESUMO Objetivo: determinar o diagnóstico da situação sobre a documentação das quedas e risco de queda em pessoas maiores de 75 anos em unidades básicas de saúde da Espanha e Portugal. Método: estudo exploratório misto em duas etapas: (i) descritiva quantitativa de registros de queda selecionados aleatoriamente produzidos em um ano (597 registros; 197 espanhóis e 400 portugueses); e (ii) qualitativa, para conhecer a percepção dos profissionais de saúde, utilizando entrevistas semiestruturadas (72 profissionais; 16 espanhóis e 56 portugueses). Os âmbitos de estudo foram duas unidades básicas de saúde do Sul de Espanha e do Norte de Portugal. Resultados: nos registros de queda, o número de mulheres era maior. A presença de queda esteve associada com as variáveis idade, presença de demência, doença osteoarticular, quedas prévias e consumo de antivertiginosos. Os profissionais de saúde perceberam uma ausência de instrumentos de avaliação do risco de queda, assim como carência de programas de prevenção e falta de sensibilização sobre este acontecimento. Conclusão: as quedas são percebidas como uma área de atenção prioritária para os profissionais de saúde. Não obstante, existe uma falta de adesão ao registro de quedas e da avaliação do risco como consequência de problemas organizacionais, logísticos e motivacionais.

RESUMEN Objetivo: determinar el diagnóstico de la situación sobre la documentación de las caídas y riesgo de caída en personas mayores de 75 años en unidades básicas de salud de España y Portugal. Método: estudio exploratorio mixto en dos etapas: (i) descriptiva cuantitativa de registros de caída seleccionados aleatoriamente producidos en un año (597 registros; 197 españoles y 400 portugueses); y (ii) cualitativa, para conocer la percepción de los profesionales sanitarios, empleando entrevistas semiestructuras (72 profesionales; 16 españoles y 56 portugueses). Los ámbitos de estudio fueron dos unidades básicas de salud del Sur de España y Norte de Portugal. Resultados: en los registros de caída, el número de mujeres era mayor. La presencia de caída se asociaba con las variables edad, presencia de demencia, enfermedad osteoarticular, caídas previas y consumo de anti-vertiginosos. Los profesionales sanitarios percibían una ausencia de instrumentos de evaluación del riesgo de caída, así como carencia de programas de prevención y falta de sensibilización sobre este acontecimiento. Conclusión: las caídas son percibidas como un área de atención prioritaria para los profesionales sanitarios. No obstante, existe una falta de adhesión al registro de caídas y de la evaluación del riesgo como consecuencia de problemas organizacionales, logísticos y motivacionales.