Community Assessment Instructions and Grading Rubric 20 points Objective: To con

Community Assessment Instructions and Grading Rubric

20 points

Objective: To conduct a comprehensive windshield survey of a selected community, identifying key factors that influence population health.

Community Assessment: Community health is a critical dimension in baccalaureate nursing. This assignment allows you the opportunity to perform course objectives in “real life” by assessing a community as a client, arriving at a community diagnosis, proposing interventions, and deciding how you would measure the outcomes. In this assignment, you will begin to evaluate the health needs of a community. To meet the needs of community members, public health nurses must first identify barriers to health care and identify the community’s priorities. Conducting a community assessment is a systematic process: it is the act of becoming acquainted with a community. The purpose is to become familiar with the community and the population by examining factors that impact the health of the population. The examination allows us to identify strengths and capacities as well as gaps and risks. Healthcare professionals acquire insight and valuable information necessary to guide work with the population through community assessment. Such an assessment will allow you as students to develop professional interventions in a collaborative manner which will hopefully contribute to community empowerment and change that is appropriate and acceptable for the target population.

Windshield Survey: One aspect of the community assessment is a windshield survey used as a valuable tool to complete an ‘environmental scan.’ It allows students/public health nurses to observe and assess the health of a community by conducting an on-site exploration of its physical, social, and environmental factors. Using the physical senses of the observer, its purpose is to “capture the essence of the community, determine areas for further investigation, and sense of the tone of the community.” For NURS 400 students will complete a windshield survey of the community in which they live. The structure of the survey is based on the Nies & McEwen (8th ed.) textbook Assessment Framework for a Community Health Assessment to explore a geographical community (Chapter 6). For help with writing the questions to ask, see text Chapter 6, Box 6-2: Questions to Guide Community Observations During a Windshield Survey. There are many diverse sources of data needed to complete a comprehensive community assessment including the use of the NURS 400 LibGuide. Students will explore these data sources to help the preparation of their community assessment. You will explore these data sources to help with the preparation of your community assessment. The Community Health Assessment PowerPoint (including all the grading criteria on the grading rubric) is compiled, including multiple sources of data, following the completion of the community assessment. Explain the value of collaborating with other professionals, the use of data resources, and evidence-based practice to guide community health nursing. This is an individual assignment. You may assess a city, county, or neighborhood. Be aware that it is sometimes difficult to find city or neighborhood health data, so it is fine to use county data in this case. Please say in the assignment that you were not able to find city or neighborhood data, so are using county data.

Instructions:

1. Community Selection:

1. Choose a community to conduct the windshield (or walking) survey. It could be a neighborhood, town, or any defined geographic area.

1. Ensure that the community is diverse and representative of different socioeconomic, cultural, and health characteristics.

1. View your chosen community as your patient taking pictures (do not use stock photos from the internet) and assessing what is healthy in the community and what is not or may lead to public health concerns that could be addressed in your nursing diagnosis. You must include photos you took during your windshield/walking survey in your final presentation.

1. Data Collection:

1. Conduct a thorough windshield/walking survey, observing and documenting the following aspects:

1. Consider demographic information, health behaviors, environmental factors, and the prevalence of diseases.

1. Physical Environment: Housing, roads, parks, sanitation.

1. Social Environment: Schools, community centers, places of worship.

1. Health Services: Hospitals, clinics, pharmacies.

1. Economic Factors: Businesses, employment opportunities.

1. Safety and Security: Crime rates, police presence.

1. Population Demographics: Age groups, ethnic composition.

1. Gather relevant data about the community from various sources, including surveys, health records, interviews, and observations.

1. Interview a key informant (keep their identity confidential for this assignment) that addresses public health in the community. Refer to your APA 7th ed. Resources to properly cite personal communications. The course instructor reserves the right to request key informant contact information for auditing and plagiarism purposes.

i. Keep in mind, that a community key informant is a professional in the community but not a nurse (interprofessional collaboration) (examples may include mayor, teacher, physician, environmental scientist, public health professional, minister, city council member, health educator, etc.) Interview the key informant using open-ended questions that you develop from the examples in the textbook.

ii. Questions to include in the key interview should include but not be limited to the following:

1. How do you define health?

1. What helps you or your community be healthy?

1. What makes it difficult to be healthy in your community?

1. What are the health concerns for your community? Your culture?

1. What resources do you access to help you be healthy?

1. Analysis:

1. Analyze the collected data to identify potential health determinants and disparities within the community.

1. Identify health priorities through data analysis to identify patterns, trends, and significant health issues.

1. Prioritize health issues based on prevalence, severity, and impact on the community.

1. Relate the findings to population health theories discussed in the course.

1. Refer to the Week 8 module/ NU400 resources in the Mustang Library – NURS 400 LibGuide to do online searches for data about the community. The data guide set up for NU400 at the Mustang Library has a menu at the top that includes databases for many of the items you need for the Community Assessment!

1. It might be helpful to check with your local Chambers of Commerce as a great community resource!

1. You will need to include multiple/credible (at least 4 sources of data) sources of data in your assessment.

1. The 4 sources of data must be:

1. The walking or windshield tour

1. Two sources of data must be included/used from the Mustang McFarland Library NU400 Lib (Data) Guide: http://libguides.smsu.edu/nurs400

1. Health Promotion Strategies:

1. Propose health promotion strategies based on the identified health determinants.

1. Consider collaboration with community resources and stakeholders.

1. Reflection:

1. Reflect on the experience of conducting the windshield survey.

1. Discuss any challenges encountered and lessons learned.

Additional/APA Formatting (7th ed.):

1. Please incorporate photos from your Windshield/Walking Survey within your PowerPoint to show the community! Avoid using pictures of children. Include photos in your PowerPoint to highlight the community (paint a picture) but remember this is not an advertisement for the community but rather an assessment of its health.

1. Please include major headings in your PowerPoint for the required elements including adhering to 7th ed. APA formatting

1. Formulating the Community Health Diagnosis:

1. Formulating a community health diagnosis involves identifying and analyzing the health issues and needs within a community. Similar to an individual health diagnosis, a community health diagnosis helps guide the development of interventions and strategies to address identified problems.

1. For this assignment, you will identify a priority health need from your community assessment and write a community health diagnosis. You will write a community health diagnosis using the following format from the Nies and McEwen (8th ed.) text in Chapter 6 (refer to Fig. 6.4): Community Assessment.

1. Statement of the Diagnosis:

• Clearly state the community health diagnosis. It should be concise and focused on the main health issues affecting the community.

d. Use the following Format:

• Using the format, write a diagnosis to address/describe the health problem in a specific term or measure of concern and add this to your PowerPoint. Be clear about what the issue is.
• The format for community health diagnosis is, “Increased risk of ______________(disability or disease) among ____________________(community or population) related to ______________________(etiological statement to identify the contributing factors or root cause of the health problem) as demonstrated in/as evidenced by ___________________ (highlight any health indicators such as the signs or evidence of the health problem within the community).” In this course, it is critical to use current evidence! In nursing, current evidence and practice changes so quickly! It is vital to use current sources for your coursework that is dated within 5-7 years. That way you are basing your work and learning on the latest evidence!