Years of potential life lost aged 75 per 100000 people in Pennsylvania continue to increase. Approximately 7600 years are lost due to individuals’ deaths below age 75 in the 100000 population, which range between 4100 and 10700 years of life lost across the United States counties. This increased loss of potential life is caused by significant health concerns such as sexually transmitted infections, commonly chlamydia, lack of access to exercise opportunities, adult obesity, and adult smoking. In a 100000 study population of newly diagnosed chlamydia cases, 481. 9 new cases had been recorded as of 2019. This implies that new cases per 100000 individual ranges from 116.5 to 1284.9 across counties in the United States (County Health Ranking & Roadmaps, n.d.). This is highly a matter of concern since chlamydia remains one of the most reported men and women sexually transmitted infection cases in the United States.
Chlamydia, as a sexually transmitted infection, usually has no symptoms; however, it might cause permanent damage, especially for the women’s reproductive organs. Unlike women, untreated chlamydia in men rarely poses life-threatening damage; nevertheless, it often causes epididymitis or painful testicular swelling. On the other hand, untreated chlamydia in women might result in ectopic pregnancy or inability to get pregnant, pelvic inflammatory illness, and other life-threatening conditions where the fertilized eggs develop outside the uterus. According to Kumar et al. (2021), chlamydia takes a larger percentage of medical costs channelled to non-viral sexually transmitted infections, particularly in Pennsylvania, and direct medical costs in the United States remained more than $691 million in 2018.
The creation of a community health center program will help address the issue of sexually transmitted infection, chlamydia, in Pennsylvania since the increased scarcity of healthcare services in most communities highly impact sexually transmitted infection treatment and prevention for people within the United States (Valentine et al., 2021). Therefore, creating a health center program will help reduce the increase of reported cases by building control capacity and local sexually transmitted diseases. The program supports the evaluation, implementation, and planning of interdisciplinary interventions and is innovative primarily to advance community wellness, promote personal health, and identify societal concerns, which might lead to disparities and come up with interventions to solve the increase of chlamydia cases in Pennsylvania. In addition, the community health center program is an ideal method to reduce the stigma linked to sexually transmitted infection prevention in Pennsylvania (Valentine et al., 2021). Overcoming the impact of negative health factors of sexual healthcare, such as stigma in most states, remain a major challenge that can mostly be solved with health community programs that frequently interact with the patients.
Nurse practitioners play an essential part in influencing health policies that can be used to reduce chlamydia cases in Pennsylvania since they have the power to influence healthcare organizations and systems and implement health policies to offer good health outcomes for patients. They often offer first-hand patient care, which implies that their work entails translating health procedures and policies during one-on-one patient interactions. Hence, the three ways that a nurse practitioner can use to influence policy innovation to help solve the increasing cases of sexually transmitted infections in Pennsylvania include evaluating existing policies and pointing out opportunities, missing components, or inefficiencies to enhance the affordability and delivery of care to patients with chlamydia. The next step involves proposing new policies that meet health needs in their daily practice. Finally, meet with lobbyists, administrators, and policymakers to offer clinical understanding to policy proposals.
References
County Health Ranking & Roadmaps . (n.d.). Pennsylvania. County Health Rankings & Roadmaps. Retrieved from https://www.countyhealthrankings.org/explore-health-rankings/pennsylvania?year=2022
Valentine, J. A., Delgado, L. F., Haderxhanaj, L. T., & Hogben, M. (2021). Improving sexual health in U.S. rural communities: Reducing the impact of stigma. AIDS and Behavior, 26(S1), 90–99. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10461-021-03416-4
Kumar, S., Chesson, H. W., Spicknall, I. H., Kreisel, K. M., & Gift, T. L. (2021). The estimated lifetime medical cost of chlamydia, gonorrhea, and trichomoniasis in the United States, 2018. Sexually Transmitted Diseases, 48(4), 238–246. https://doi.org/10.1097/olq.0000000000001357
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