Nurses bring healthcare to homes

Nurse visits to homes catch life-threatening diseases early (diabetes, high blood pressure, cancer, kidney disease). Longer healthier lives, reduced cost for state healthcare, the result.

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Angels of mercy go door to door in rural communities, A new push by the Ministry of Health to send nurses to visit patients at home is saving lives by Apiradee Treerutkuarkul

Supatra Kamkote, a nurse on a mission to help her community, wears a bright green shirt and rides a motorcycle as she visits patients.

She visits almost every home in the community where the Non Somboon health promotion clinic in Muang district is responsible for health care.

Ms Supatra is one of dozens of nurses and health professionals taking part in the community health promoter project being implemented for the first time in the country's newest province.

The Public Health Ministry hopes the project will help nurses and health professionals better understand how their patients live, especially those suffering from chronic health problems such as diabetes, high blood pressure and kidney diseases.

"It's good for us to work in communities because we learn about the health and living conditions of our patients," said Ms Supatra.

We help them find ways to improve their quality of life rather than waiting for patients to come and see us at hospital. 

The emphasis on house calls could also encourage patients to be more aware of their health problems.

Boonliang Budda, 74, a diabetes sufferer, said community health promoters check on his condition once a month.

Mr Boonliang said his blood pressure can shoot up so high that he almost passes out. The community health promoters encouraged him to change his eating habits and exercise more. Since following their advice, his blood pressure has dropped to a normal level

He said it was no longer necessary to wait all day at the provincial hospital to see a doctor for five minutes because his health has now improved considerably since the community health promoters started visiting him. 

Nurse Araya Lamputta, who also works for the Non Somboon community health promoter project, said some villagers are less willing than Mr Boonliang to change their eating habits and control risk factors that could worsen their health. 

Ms Araya has conducted screening tests to learn about chronic health problems in the community. She is worried about the eating habits of people in the Northeast, saying their diets are too salty and sweet.

Such foods increase the risk of diabetes, high blood pressure and kidney disease because they contain excessive carbohydrates, which can affect blood glucose levels.

She said the change from rice farming to rubber planting in the Northeast also affected villagers' ways of life.

They wake up early to go to work and drink many cans of instant coffee instead of having a proper breakfast.

The ministry says the cost of treating people with diabetes, high blood pressure, kidney diseases, stroke and cancer caused by changing lifestyles is up to 20 billion baht a year.

(Source: Bangkok Post, Angels of mercy go door to door in rural communities, A new push by the Ministry of Health to send nurses to visit patients at home is saving lives, 14/09/2011, Apiradee Treerutkuarkul, link) 

Public Health Nursing Vocabulary

nurse - a person trained to care for the sick, disabled and others who need special medical care such as newly born babies, most nurses work in hospitals or clinics (See Wikipedia)

public health nursing - a specialization within nursing that focuses on: 1. educating the community on how to care for and treat themselves; 2. monitoring the spread of disease, 3. monitoring and watching for environmental hazards; 4. and training for community disasters (Source: Wikipedia, also see list of nurse specialties)

health promotion - helping people gain control over their own health and the things that affect their health, in order to improve their health (See Wikipedia)
health promotion clinic - a clinic in community that promotes health in the community
clinic - a small healthcare facility, often taking care of a small community of people (See Wikipedia)

promoters - people who encourage something to happen ผู้สนับสนุน
community health promoters - people (like public health nurses) who take action to improve the health of a community

door-to-door - visiting people's homes to provide some service (selling things or here, providing heathcare services) (example: door-to-door salesman)

mission - an important job, especially a military one, that someone is sent somewhere to do งาน
on a mission to - a project with a very high and ambitious goal (with workers devoted to the goal or ideal)
a nurse on a mission to help her community - a nurse with the high level goal of helping the community (not just caring out nursing tasks for a set group of patients)

risk - danger, how likely or possible it is for a bad event that causes harm and damage ความเสี่ยง
factors - all the things that affect a situation or event   ปัจจัย

risk factor - a factor with increased risk of disease or infection (correlational and not necessarily causal .... For example, being young cannot be said to cause measles, but young people are more at risk as they are less likely to have developed immunity during a previous epidemic), a term from the field of epidemiology (See Wikipedia)

control risk factors that could worsen their health - change parts of the way you live everyday (your lifestyle) that might over time make disease more likely (example: "By the time that heart problems are detected, the underlying cause (atherosclerosis) is usually quite advanced, having progressed for decades. There is therefore increased emphasis on preventing atherosclerosis by modifying risk factors, such as healthy eating, exercise, and avoidance of smoking." (See Wikipedia)

screening - in preventive medicine: "a strategy used in a population to detect a disease in individuals without signs or symptoms of that disease. Unlike what generally happens in medicine, screening tests are performed on persons without any clinical sign of disease. The intention of screening is to identify disease in a community early, thus enabling earlier intervention and management in the hope to reduce mortality and suffering from a disease"  (See Wikipedia)
conducted screening tests - did screening tests

suffering - physical or mental pain or problems ความทุกข์ทรมาน
chronic - (of a disease or pain) serious and lasting for a long time เป็นประจำ

high blood pressure - when your heart has to work harder than it should to pump blood around your body, a medical condition that develops over a long period of time, normal blood pressure is 120/80, high blood pressure is over 140/90, also called "hypertension" ความดันโลหิตสูง (See Wikipedia)
kidney - one of the two organs in your body that clean your blood and remove waste ไต

diabetes - a deadly disease in which you have abnormally high blood sugar levels, because the body does not produce enough insulin to reduce the amount of sugar in the blood โรคเบาหวาน (See Wikipedia)

blood glucose levels - the amount or "concentration" of sugar (glucose) in the blood, "The human body naturally tightly regulates blood glucose levels as a part of metabolic homeostasis. Glucose is the primary source of energy for the body's cells, and blood lipids (in the form of fats and oils) are primarily a compact energy store. Glucose is transported from the intestines or liver to body cells via the bloodstream, and is made available for cell absorption via the hormone insulin, produced by the body primarily in the pancreas. The mean normal blood glucose level in humans is about 4 mM (4 mmol/L or 72 mg/dL, i.e. milligrams/deciliter); however, this level fluctuates throughout the day. Glucose levels are usually lowest in the morning, before the first meal of the day (termed "the fasting level"), and rise after meals for an hour or two by a few milliMolar. Blood sugar levels outside the normal range may be an indicator of a medical condition. A persistently high level is referred to as hyperglycemia; low levels are referred to as hypoglycemia. Diabetes mellitus is characterized by persistent hyperglycemia from any of several causes, and is the most prominent disease related to failure of blood sugar regulation. A temporarily elevated blood sugar level may also result from severe stress, such as trauma, stroke, myocardial infarction, surgery, or illness[citation needed]. Intake of alcohol causes an initial surge in blood sugar, and later tends to cause levels to fall. Also, certain drugs can increase or decrease glucose levels," also called "blood sugar"  (See Wikipedia)

living conditions - ชีวิตความเป็นอยู่    สภาพความเป็นอยู่   
improve - to make better ทำให้ดีขึ้น
quality of life - คุณภาพชีวิต, ลักษณะของการดำรงชีวิต, การใช้ชีวิต

house call - when a doctor or nurse visits a person's home provide medical treatment
condition - health condition, health problem

shoot up - suddenly increase by a large amount
pass out - faint, lose consciousness เป็นลม

blood pressure can shoot up so high that he almost passes out

encouraged - having more confidence or hope about something มีกำลังใจ
eating habits - the foods and drinks that a person typically eats each day (example: article mentions that many in the northeast like sweet and salty food, which can cause health problems)

encouraged him to change his eating habits and exercise more

diets - the food and drink usually taken by a person or group อาหาร
diets are too salty and sweet

carbohydrates - a chemical that is the source of energy for the body; foods high in carbohydrate include fruits, sweets, soft drinks, breads, pastas, beans, potatoes, bran, rice, and cereals (See Wikipedia)
excessive - too much; much greater than is usual มากเกินปริมาณที่พอดี
excessive carbohydrates - too much carbohydrates  

proper - actual or real จริง (พระราชพิธีพระราชทานเพลิงพระศพจริง)
having a proper breakfast - having a real breakfast (not just coffee)

stroke - a medical condition is which the blood flow is suddenly stopped and cannot reach the brain อาการเส้นโลหิตในสมองแตกอย่างเฉียบพลัน ภาวะหัวใจวาย หมายถึงการที่หัวใจไม่สามารถสูบฉีดเลือดไปเลี้ยงสมองได้ชั่วขณะ

lifestyle -  วิถีทางการดำเนินชีวิต (See Wikipedia)
changing lifestyles  

General Vocabulary

rural - farming areas; connected with the countryside outside big towns and cities ในชนบท, บ้านนอก
community - local people, all the people who live in a local area or place ชุมชน
rural communities - farming communities and small towns

angel - a spiritual or supernatural being, not of this world เทพธิดา , also: a good person คนที่ใจดี
mercy - acting to stop pain, suffering and harm to others ความเมตตา, ความกรุณา, ความปราณี
angel of mercy - a spiritual or supernatural being who stops suffering

implemented - when a plan is put into action, actually doing the things in a plan

emphasis - special importance or attention that is given to one thing in particular การเน้นย้ำ

encourage - to make someone more likely to do something, or to make something more likely to happen ปลุกใจ
aware - knowing that something exists, or having knowledge or experience of a particular thing ทราบ

ministry - a government department dealing with an area of activity กระทรวง