“With the chronic obesity in America, it’s more important than ever to not only feed the kids healthy foods but to teach them how to make healthy choices on their own,” Jennie Garth said, ultimately so, for the future health of our nation. In order to help the children of this nation become more educated, we must reach out to the parental public. It is an increasingly important responsibility for healthcare providers to get more involved with their patients’ lifestyles. Today’s nurses are at the frontline of patient care and with these changes in healthcare it is nursing students our nation should be focusing on to educate on how to help others help themselves, prevent or decrease obesity within their families. That being said, the following research shows ways to better understand the problem the United States faces with a rise in childhood obesity, how nursing students view obesity and research showing methods in which they should be dealing with obese patients, and why childhood obesity most evident in poverty stricken communities. Before one can truly understand the problem this nation faces with rising obesity and decide how to prevent it further, one must fully understand what obesity is and how it has come about. It is said that once one understands a problem, the solution becomes clear. Research shows that many people are not aware of what is causing this obesity and therefore, are incapable of properly preventing it in their children. For purposes of this paper, it is even more important to be sure that the future health care providers of our nation, nurses specifically, are well informed of the causes and effects of obesity and are prepared to battle this problem once they are hired into the workforce in order to detect...
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...he future, I have hope that future nursing students will become more educated in the matter and come up with ways to help improve prevention of this epidemic we call obesity.
Works Cited
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Vital signs: obesity among low-income, preschool-aged children - United States, 2008-2011. (2013).
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In the recent decades, obesity has grown into a major health issue in the United States within young people. With 31 percent of the United States of children being obese, the United States has become the country with the highest rate of obesity in the world. Obesity is not only found among adults, but it is also now found mainly among children and teenagers. The childhood is a very important period for the initiation of obesity especially in this time. Eating practices that children are taught or learn during childhood affects a person later in their life whether they know or not. Multiple studies have confirmed that childhood obesity in the U.S has been on a rise for years. One out of three children in the U.S are obese, most of them face a higher risk of having medical, social and academic problems. Childhood obesity also leads to many health problems among young people. Those problems include diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and many more others. These problems cause a rise in health care costs that their families might have to pay sooner or later. The influence of parents and the media play a big role in causing these problems to happen. Some people believe that a family with an obese child should not raise child protection concerns if obesity is the only cause for concern (Callaghan, 2010). However, doctors should always be mindful of the possible role of abuse or neglect in contributing to obesity. The result of some research that was done on the symptoms of neglect shows a clear correlation between childhood abuse and obesity in childhood. A study of American school children has found that after controlling for socioeconomic status, those who were physically abused were more likely to be obese (Callaghan, 201...
Towns, N., & D’Auria, J. (2009). Parental perceptions of their child are overweight: An integrative review of the literature. Journal of Pediatric Nursing, 24(2), 115-130.
Interest in the social aspects of obesity is nothing new. Jeffrey Sobal has written extensively about the social and psychological consequences of obesity , including the stigmatisation and discrimination of obese and even overweight individuals (Sobal 2004).
Also approximately, 13 million children and adolescents between the ages of 2-19, are obese in the United States too. A child who is obese will have the following symptoms, such as a physical look of being overweight, binge eating, and it is very common for them to have a shortness of breath when they take on a physical task, or exercise. Child obesity, if not treated, nor looked after can cause very mortal complication diseases in the near future that awaits for them ahead. It can lead the child towards having future high blood pressure, and high cholesterol. It is considered neglect that parents have an obese child, this is because children need to be looked after, and not have to look after their own wellbeing, they don’t know any better. The parents on the other hand, are grown adults to know their own child’s medical history, and what needs to be in order for their child to live a healthy. In order to avoid obesity from their children, parents have to know all of the fundamentals towards becoming successful on their child’s health, and away from the bad eating choices. At the end of it all parents need get their child proper medical treatment, and counseling towards a healthy lifestyle, or it is considered for the child to be obese, and a result the state will affirmative action against the family
Puhl, Rebecca, and Kelly D. Brownell. "Ways of Coping with Obesity Stigma: Review and Conceptual Analysis." Eating Behaviors 4.1 (2003): 53-78. Web.
Childhood obesity has been on the rise in the last couple of years. In the 1970’s childhood obesity was never a concern to the public until the number increased over the years. An alarming rate of 31% of all adults have been obese since they were children and the rates of childhood obesity don’t fall too behind with an 18% of children being obese. That makes almost half of obese adults and children. A child that is obese has a 70-80% higher chance of staying obese even through their adulthood if no action is taken. Childhood obesity is not something children are in control of, these children suffer from different outcomes since they can’t look after themselves and heavily rely on someone to aid them when they need it. These numbers can be drastically altered in a positive way by educating both children and parents about healthy, nutritious foods to consume, supplying schools with better lunch and healthier vending machines with healthy choices and promoting after school activities to keep children active and away from electronics.
Obesity in children across America has become an increasing public health concern. Obesity has been identified as an epidemic that is plaguing our children in the United States. In some countries around the world children are dying of starvation everyday. How can this happen when here in America the opposite is a major problem? This is not to say that in America there are no hungry or starving children. It has been proven that our children suffer from obesity, and “children who are overweight or obese as preschoolers are five times as likely as normal-weight children to be overweight or obese as adults” (“Hope”). Obesity not only can cause a child to become more prone to having health problems down the road, but it can also make them feel insecure about themselves. There needs to be action taken in schools as well as in homes to help prevent this growing epidemic.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistic’s Employment Projections 2012-2022 released in January 2014, the Registered Nursing workforce is the top occupation in terms of job growth through 2022. It is expected that the number of employed nurses will grow from 2.71 million in 2012 to 3.24 million in 2022, an increase of 526,800 or 19 percent. Growth will take place for a number of reasons: demand for health care services due to increasing life expectancy; chronic conditions, such as arthritis, dementia, diabetes, and obesity; and the number of individuals who have access to health services.
Rush-Wilson, Tiffany C. "The Crisis Of Childhood Obesity: What You Can Do." Pediatrics For Parents 24.1 (2008): 3-5 MasterFILE Premier. Web. 23 Sept. 2013
“This might be the first generation where kids are dying at a younger age than their parents and it's related primarily to the obesity problem.” Judy Davis. Childhood obesity is not a new term by an means but in the last few years it has grown in popularity. Some call childhood obesity the next “national epidemic”, sounds pretty scary especially when it’s effecting the youngest of Americans. Obesity is among one of the easiest medical condition to recognize but is the most difficult to treat. Children who are overweight are 10x more likely to become overweight adults unless they change their eating habits and exercise. (“Childhood Obesity. Pg 1). 30% of adult obesity begins in childhood, it is also said obesity is the cause of 300,000 deaths a year and cost society an estimated $100 billion a year. Today, about one third of American’s children and teens are considered to be overweight or obese, it has nearly tripled in size since 1963 (“Childhood Obesity”. Pg 1). Obesity is causing numerous health problems that typically aren’t seen until adulthood. Childhood obesity can effect the physical, emotional, and social well-being of a child.
Boyer, P, Clark, C, Kett, J, Salisbury, N, Sitkoff, H & Woloch, H. (2008). The enduring
Obesity is a modern epidemic in America and is starting to become our society’s “norm.” According to an article in Progress in Health Sciences, childhood obesity is the most frequent eating disorder (Koukourikos). There are several factors that contribute to the childhood obesity epidemic. Should we solely shun the parents of obese children for this? No, we should not. There is not one single person to blame, but several people, along with our society. Family, friends, and schools all play a very important role in teaching children about healthy food choices and exercise. Children may have a greater risk for obesity due to genetic factors. We need to constantly remind our children how important it is to maintain a healthy lifestyle so that
The Institute of Medicine has released a report that discusses the future in nursing. The IOM has developed four key messages that outline the barriers that need to be overcome, so that nurses can work effectively and to their fullest ability.
Childhood obesity is a serious problem among American children. Some doctors are even calling childhood obesity an epidemic because of the large percentage of children being diagnosed each year as either overweight or obese. “According to DASH sixteen to thirty-three percent of American children each year is being told they are obese.” (Childhood Obesity) There is only a small percentage, approximately one percent, of those children who are obese due to physical or health related issues; although, a condition that is this serious, like obesity, could have been prevented. With close monitoring and choosing a healthier lifestyle there would be no reason to have such a high obesity rate in the United States (Caryn). Unfortunately, for these children that are now considered to be obese, they could possibly be facing some serious health conditions, such as heart disease, diabetes, and some types of cancers. All of these diseases have been linked to obesity through research. These children never asked for this to happen to them; however, it has happened, and now they will either live their entire life being obese, or they will be forced to reverse what has already been done (Childhood Obesity).
Several years ago in 2008 the RWJF and the IOM collaborated for two years to discern the future needs of the nursing profession. Most importantly, the objective was to outline the critical actions needed to ensure nursing was ready to seamlessly move towards the future. This was no easy task as nurses work in such diverse settings such as outpatient areas, acute care settings, the community, and long term settings to name a few. Couple this with the fact that nurses have a variety of educational avenues such as the associates, diploma, or bachelor’s degree open to them to achieve the status of registered nurse (Institute of Medicine, 2010). All of this considered, the committee did design four key messages regarding the future of nursing as key in the transformation of health care as evidenced in their "Future of Nursing" report.