Community Assessment
Using a variety of instruments (Windshield Survey, Community Assessment Tool, Screening interviews, etc.) while in your community, you will assess the community location. This will lead to a list of identified, prioritized health needs and your recommendations for intervention.
You will complete a windshield survey of your community. The objective of a windshield survey is to assess a community in a short, simple way, compiling data to help form an analysis of that community. Simply put, a windshield survey is the equivalent of a community head-to-toe assessment. There are 6 elements that should be included in your windshield survey (See
Community Assessment Template
Download Community Assessment Template
). You will drive through your community and document your findings on a PowerPoint presentation. Take pictures of your community to enhance your PowerPoint presentation.
- After studying Module 3: Lecture Materials & Resources, familiarize yourself with the instruments for:
A Windshield Survey (Website Resource 15C, p. 425).
The Community Assessment Tool applied to Phenomenological Communities (Website Resource 15A, p. 425).
You may also wish to review Chapter 13, Box 13-1 (p. 343) for examples of assessments that may be appropriate for your community population, since the Community Assessment Tool includes some screening data and information from clients. - Plan how you will obtain the information for the assessments.
Conduct a Windshield Survey assessment.
Drive around your community and take pictures.
Create a PowerPoint presentation No more than 10 slides addressing each area of the windshield study.
Submission Instructions:
- The presentation is to be clear and concise and students will lose points for improper grammar, punctuation and misspelling.
- Incorporate a minimum of 3 current (published within the last five years) scholarly journal articles or primary legal sources (statutes, court opinions) within your work. Journal articles and books should be referenced according to APA style (the library has a copy of the APA Manual).
Title
Introduction
Provide background and history of the community
Instructions for the following slides:
The slides have questions that can help compile the data needed for your windshield survey.
Emphasize and elaborate your answers.
Provide pictures of the community to enhance your PowerPoint slides.
Community Vitality
Are people visible in the community? What are they doing?
Who are the people living in the neighborhood? What is their age range? What is the predominant age (e.g., elderly, preschoolers, young mothers, or school-aged children)?
What ethnicity or race is most common?
Do you notice tourists or visitors to the community?
Do you observe any people who appear to be under the influence of drugs or alcohol?
Do you see any pregnant women? Do you see women with strollers and young children?
(This can be more than one slide due to all the information it entails)
Indicators of Social and Economic Conditions:
What is the general condition of the homes you observe? Are these single-family homes or multifamily structures? Is there any evidence of dilapidated housing or of areas undergoing urban renewal? Is there public housing? What is its condition?
How do people get from place to another? Is public transportation available? If so, what kind and how effective? How timely? Personal autos? Bikes, etc.? Are there any indicators of the kinds of work available to the residents? Are there job opportunities nearby, such as factories, small business, or military installations? Are there unemployed people visible, such as homeless people?
Do you observe any interest in political campaigns or issues, such as campaign signs?
What kinds of schools and day care centers are available?
(This can be more than one slide due to all the information it entails)
Health Resources:
Do you see evidence of clinics, hospitals, mental illness, substance abuse centers?
Do you see evidence of office of doctors and dentists, health department facilities, urgent care centers, and pharmacies?
Are these resources appropriate and sufficient to address the kinds of problems that exist in this community?
(This can be more than one slide due to all the information it entails)
Environmental Conditions Related to Health:
Do you observe recreational facilities and playgrounds?
Do you see preschools and daycare facilities?
Do you see any restaurants? Is there food being sold on the streets?
What evidence of nuisances like ants, mosquitoes, flies, or rodents do you observe?
Description of the clinical manifestations and assessments.
(This can be more than one slide due to all the information it entails)
Social Functioning:
How many types of churches, synagogues, or other places of worship are there?
What evidence of a sense of neighborliness can you observe?
Can you observe anything that would make you suspicious for social problems such as gang activity, juvenile delinquency, drug or alcohol abuse, and adolescent pregnancy
Assessment of the learning needs of the population.
(This can be more than one slide due to all the information it entails)
Attitude Toward Health and Health Care:
Do you observe any evidence of folk medicine practice, such as a botanical or herbal medicine shop?
Do you observe that health resources are well utilized or underutilized?
Is there evidence of preventive or wellness care?
Provide nursing diagnoses based on your assessment of the community or the most prevalent disorder.
(This can be more than one slide due to all the information it entails.)
Conclusion
Summation of your community.
This is where you can mention the conditions and trends in the community that could affect the health of the population.
References