Familiarization Community Assessment

The community I decided to research and compose this paper is one from which I live, Kent County Michigan. I gathered data from several different resources such as the Kent County Health Department and Michigan Department of Community Health in order to create a community assessment. The data I collected can be broken down into four different assessment pieces.

Assessing a community is an integral part of Community Health Nursing because it leads to an understanding of a community’s overall health status, including its strengths and weaknesses. In turn, the assessment findings can be used to influence positive change in the community and improve the population’s health. One strategy used to assess a population’s health needs is performing a windshield survey. A windshield survey is typically conducted from a moving vehicle and includes a systematic observation of the general community. This paper includes the findings of a windshield survey I completed of Heber, AZ as well as my overall impression of the survey, and personal biases that I need to consider.

A windshield survey was conducted in the community of Staten Island, New York to obtain a detailed assessment through visual observations within the surroundings of the community. There are many variations of the definition of community one coming from the World Health Organization defining community as “A group of people, often living in a defined geographical area, who may share a common culture, values and norms, and are arranged in a social structure according to relationships which the community has developed over a period of time” (Stanhope & Lancaster, 2012, p. 397). Community health includes the characteristics that promote positive health of the

Crawford County, Kansas is very familiar to me; it is where I was born and raised and now, as an adult, it is where I work as a nurse. Barriers to healthcare exists in every community. There is a high amount of poverty in Crawford County that contributes to barriers to access to healthcare. Furthermore, Crawford County has several stakeholders that influence the health of the community and advanced practice registered nurse (ARNP) practice. In this assessment of my community, I will identify Crawford County, as well as prevalent health care barriers and important stakeholders in my community.

According to Stanhope and Lancaster, a windshield survey is a "community assessment, the motorized equivalent of a physical assessment for an individual; windshield refers to looking through the car windshield as a nurse in community health drives through the community collecting data.” (Stanhope & Lancaster, 2010, p. 217). These types of surveys are a form of information gathering means, making direct visual observations to assess the social environment of a community while driving, they can even be conducted on foot in the event that a vehicle is not available or possible. The reason of the windshield survey is to gain a better perceptive of the city social environment in terms of its boundaries, housing conditions,

County are to adolescents in the City of Reading (67.8%). The City of Reading rate is

We decided to focus our community assessment in Dallas County (see Appendix C for the community map) because poverty in this area is a rising epidemic. According to Mayor Mike Rawlings, “the gap between the haves and the have-nots is still too wide, we must close the gap”. Dallas is home to a variety of races and ethnicities, but it is the Hispanic and the African Americans that poverty has effected the most with the rate increasing by 42% over a span of 15 years (Dallas City Hall, September 7, 2016). Our focus was more on South Central and Southeast Dallas spanning across Districts 5, 7, and 8 because of the significant increase in poverty in these areas. In Dallas, “almost 1 in 3 Hispanics and African Americans

Throughout this paper we’ll be assessing and dissecting the community of Paterson, New Jersey, located in Passaic County. Formerly referred to as an industrial powerhouse that opened many doors of opportunity to the community surrounding it. It added wealth, independence, and economic security to the surrounding areas. The Great Falls and the potential power they generated was the primary cause for this. Alexander Hamilton wanted to construct an industrial city around the Great Falls. He believed manufacturers will increase the power and division of labor throughout the community. These falls were the significant factor

Identifying and addressing health disparities for the rural elderly has been a great challenge. Problems of the elderly who live alone in poverty in Baker County are considerable when additional factors such as increased physical limitations, medical needs, and social isolation are taken into account. As a vulnerable population, the rural elderly are affected by their low socioeconomic standing, lower literacy rates, declining health, declines in cognitive functioning and relative lack of available nearby health resources. Seniors often live on a fixed income from pensions or other retirement plans and social security. Additionally, inability to purchase affordable health insurance,

Vulnerability, or the susceptibility to a form of harm, results from an interaction between the resources available to the elderly and communities and the life challenges they face. Vulnerability results from developmental problems, personal incapacities, disadvantaged social status, inadequate formal health care coverage, inadequacy of interpersonal networks and supports, degraded neighborhoods and environments, and the complex interactions of these factors over the life course (Mechanic, 2012). When researched several types of vulnerable populations

During the evaluation of the objectives in the (LHI) and the analysis of the perceived health of the community, three key factors were identified as potential health problems including children exposure to a second hand smoke, obesity among adults, and limited access to dental care. The identification of the LHI perceived as problems was based on personal observation and perception from community members.

The target audience selected for the teaching learning project were adults of all ages both living in town and on the outskirts. The topic of discussion and learning, access to health services and prevention of disease, was selected from Healthy People 2020 (Access to Health Services, 2015). This topic was chosen after the windshield survey. The consistent perspective is the lack of resources in the area and health care education. Adults were selected as an

Since 1980, the United States has taken on 10-year plans that outline certain key national health objectives set to be accomplished during a 10-year timeframe (Shi & Singh, 2015). These initiatives are founded on medical care with prevention services, health promotion, education, community health care, and increased access to integrated services. The initiative, Healthy People 2010: Healthy People in Healthy Communities, launched in 2000. The initiative emphasizes the role of community partners such as

The elderly have multiple health problems and struggle to stay healthy and able to care for their own needs. The elderly in the rural areas tend to have a number of needs that may be compounded because of their choice of dwellings. The rural person may need to seek health care in different nearby cities, or may find some health care providers in their own local communities. Many elderly or older adults would benefit from a health promotion plan that would focus on the needs of this age group. The components that this plan would focus on includes physical activity, proper nutrition, and coping with mental stressors. While all older adults could potential benefit from this plan, this plan will be offered primarily in rural communities in order

The program should be applied to different levels of preventions based on short term or long term needs in the community. Primary prevention approach is required to promote and maximize health and wellness in the community before injury or illness occurs (Vollman et al., 2017). Therefore, the program focuses its attention on providing the community with information on cardiovascular health, nutrition, exercise and stress management (Harkness & DeMarco, 2012). The first idea for primary intervention is providing the community with free blood pressuring and heart rate screenings to recognize the population in risk. The information about this part will be provided to the community from different sources such as news, healthcare facilities, schools, community association, and churches. The monitoring will be done through the family physicians, nurses and different stands that will be set up in different locations of the community such as pharmacies, shopping malls, churches and health facilities. All the resident of age forty-five