Blog

PH4003: Community Assessment

  • Post category:Nursing
  • Reading time:8 mins read

PH4003: Community Assessment

Nursing homework help

Overview

For this Performance Task Assessment, you will take a deeper look into your selected population through a community assessment windshield survey. You will gather data through observation, interview, and research and determine what resources are available and what barriers to health exist.

Submission Length: Completed report template

Instructions

To complete this Assessment, do the following:

Before submitting your Assessment, carefully review the rubric. This is the same rubric the SME will use to evaluate your submission and it provides detailed criteria describing how to achieve or master the Competency. Many students find that understanding the requirements of the Assessment and the rubric criteria help them direct their focus and use their time most productively.

All submissions must follow the conventions of scholarly writing. Properly formatted APA citations and references must be provided where appropriate. Submissions that do not meet these expectations will be returned without scoring.

Your response to this Performance Task should reflect the criteria provided in the Rubric and adhere to the required length. This Assessment requires submission of one (1) file. Save your file as follows: PH4003_firstinitial_lastname (for example, PH4003_J_Smith).

You may submit a draft of your assignment to the Turnitin Draft Check area to check for authenticity. When you are ready to upload your completed Assessment, use the Assessment tab on the top navigation menu.

Important Note: As a student taking this Competency, you agree that you may be required to submit your Assessment for textual similarity review to Turnitin.com for the detection of plagiarism. All submitted Assessment materials will be included as source documents in the Turnitin.com reference database solely for the purpose of detecting plagiarism of such materials. Use of the Turnitin.com service is subject to the Usage Policy posted on the Turnitin.com site.

Community Assessment Report

In PH4002, you identified a public health problem that is occurring in your community, which you will use as the subject of your practicum project. In addition to conferring with public health professionals and synthesizing data surrounding your public health problem, you also need to gain a clearer picture of the community and population involved. To do this, you will analyze the community firsthand by driving or walking around within it, noting the resources that are available in the community, and identifying possible contributing factors present in the community. Before embarking on your community assessment, read through the Community Assessment Report Template and Chapter 17 of the Stanhope and Lancaster textbook to ensure that you understand what is expected. You may also choose to search for examples of windshield surveys and community assessments on the Internet to gather ideas for your assessment.

After completing your community assessment, you will prepare a report that itemizes each of your observations and offers findings and conclusions. The Report Template can aid you in developing this report. However, this template is just a basic tool. You may need to add, delete, or modify the topics included based on your individual public health problem and community.
The Community Assessment Report Template includes the following sections and topics:

Click each of the items below for more information on this Assessment.

  • Explain the purpose of a community assessment and why you are performing this one.
  • Explain how specific social determinants within the community might impact the overall health of the community.
  • Give a background of the health problem that you identified in PH4002 and describe any information that you have already gathered on the topic.
  • Define the section of the community that you are assessing:
    • The section of the community should correspond to the population selected for the practicum problem in PH4002.
      • Example 1: A lack of vaccination among elderly could focus on senior housing projects in a specific area.
      • Example 2: A lack of vaccination among low-income children might focus on low-income housing situations in a specific area.
    • It is preferred that the selected area has specific boundaries if possible.
      • It is not feasible to perform the windshield survey of large areas such as the City of Chicago or Atlanta or the State of Wisconsin; you must select bounded areas such as from 99th Street North to 108th Street West, since you must either walk or drive around. Selecting a ZIP code is a common way of setting boundaries.
      • Note: It is not advisable to perform your windshield survey in an area that is unsafe. Also, perform your survey in daylight hours, and take any and all precautions to keep yourself safe.
    • If a specific target area cannot be identified because the problem is widespread throughout the area, then you may use a section of the community that is new to you or a section that is home to a specific population (e.g. Chinatown, Manhattan, or the Fillmore District of San Francisco).
  • Give a description of the size and density of the population with which you are concerned. Include any appropriate demographics (e.g., race, ethnic groups, gender, age) both current and historically.
  • The windshield survey should reflect that which is described in the Community Assessment Report Template and as noted in your readings. As each community is different, topics on the Community Assessment Report Template may need to be tailored to fit the needs of the selected population. It is critical for this part of the project that you actually drive or walk around the community that you are investigating.
  • Be sure to capture pictures of some observations to include in your report.
  • Based on the information that you have gathered:
    • Explain your overall impression of the community and population.
    • Analyze the strengths and weaknesses of the community and population.
    • Evaluate the overall healthiness of the community and population.
    • Analyze the safety of the community.
    • Make inferences about which elements that you observed may contribute to the health problem with which you are concerned.
    • Be sure to consider the social determinants of health, the cultural factors that apply, and any other specific observations regarding your population and community.
  • Support your responses with evidence from health data, literature, and observations.
  • Include a reference page at the end of your report.