Book Report on "Public Health Nursing"
Book Report 4 pages (1341 words) Sources: 1
[EXCERPT] . . . .
Nickel and DimedPublic Health Nursing
Book review and public health commentary:
Nickel and dimed: On (not) getting by in America
Book review and public health commentary:
Nickel and dimed: On (not) getting by in America
Barbara Ehrenreich's book Nickel and dimed: On (not) getting by in America has become a contemporary classic: through a radical act of experiential journalism, Ehrenreich challenges the notion that the minimum wage is enough for a human being to live on, in America today. By actually living the life of three, low-wage workers and recording her experiences, Ehrenreich hopes to demonstrate that the minimum wage is not a living wage. By approaching the life and work of an average worker in a hands-on fashion, rather than merely doling out a salary to herself while living at home, she also gains insight into the physical and psychological as well as the economic stresses of being poor.
Ehrenreich chooses three types of low-wage, low-skill jobs to experience. In Florida, she initially works as a waitress, but is forced to take a second job cleaning motel rooms, just to stay solvent. The fact that the waitressing job provides some food enables her to scrape by for a short period of time, but eventually the anger of the customers and the mistreatment of her colleagues (one of whom is fired unjustly for stealing) drive her to leave. Ehrenreich then moves to Maine, a place which she characterizes as a region of white poverty: she works as a housecleaner there, supplementing her income serving food at a nursing home. Ehrenreich paints a portrait of a commu
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Professional response
From the point-of-view of a public health provider, at first Ehrenreich's story may seem to have few features of interest -- Ehrenreich never discusses going to the doctor, after all. But that is what makes her tale so relevant. None of her jobs have healthcare benefits. And Ehrenreich notes the fact that, as an older woman, she was only able to keep up the pace of her two-job shifts because of a lifetime of relatively good benefits, healthcare, and the ability to exercise and eat properly. Many of her colleagues were not nearly as lucky. In Maine, Ehrenreich describes women working as maids cleaning beautiful kitchens, even though they are old, infirm, or so weak with hunger they can hardly stand. One woman, Holly, who is pregnant with a sprained ankle, seems to have barely enough food to survive, and the little money she has is used to feed others in her family. Not only is management indifferent to the sickness of the maids who are laboring at physically demanding work, when the women complain are told to simply pop an Excedrin and 'get on' with it.
This is another important feature of Ehrenreich's tale: workers who work in low-wage jobs cannot even easily get a sick day to recuperate, much less afford to go to the doctor if they have no or only meager insurance. Their bodies are treated like disposable commodities, to be worked hard until they cannot work anymore -- many of the waitresses in Key West barely last one day, it is grimly noted, because of the strain the job places on one's back and feet.
Another interesting fact uncovered by Ehrenreich is the low level of health literacy, even basic literacy, amongst her colleagues. While hardly unintelligent, Holly has trouble reading directions and basic words. A low level of functional literacy is linked to a low level of health literacy. For example, someone… READ MORE
Quoted Instructions for "Public Health Nursing" Assignment:
Book Review and Public Health Commentary: The book *****"Nickel and Dimed; on (not) getting by in America
Your assignment is to write a 3-5 page book review and opinion paper using a community health framework. In other words, read this books thinking about how they apply to community/public health nursing.
Your paper should have 4 headings:
1. Summary: Summarize the book in one page. Give a synopsis of the main points of the book.
2. Professional Response: Focus on your thoughts about the book you chose to read and what it might be like to work with the populations mentioned in the book. Discuss any experience you have had working with the populations of the book. What has it been like?
3. Community Health Issues and Application: In this part, you will consider the community health topics covered in Module 1 and what you have learned so far. Connect the book to the ideas of public health nursing practice, public health history, community assessment, epidemiology, and the determinants of health. Discuss how these topics are related to working with the population in the book.
4. Conclusions: Wrap up your thoughts about this book and its purpose in this course.
5. This paper should be in narrative format with a title page. Use APA style citations (6th ed.) if you include quotes.
How to Reference "Public Health Nursing" Book Report in a Bibliography
“Public Health Nursing.” A1-TermPaper.com, 2010, https://www.a1-termpaper.com/topics/essay/nickel-dimed-public-health/428039. Accessed 6 Jul 2024.
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