Community Assessment Instructions: Submit your final project. It should be a complete, polished artifact containing all of the critical elements of the final product. It should reflect the incorporation of feedback gained throughout the course. For additional details, please refer to the Final Project Guidelines and Rubric document: Prompt Choose a city or town within the United States to assess at the community level. You should include an analysis of the historical development of the community, the current demographic and socioeconomic climates, and the community infrastructure. Include a comparison of existing resources within the community at the local, regional, and national level. After a thorough analysis of this data, formulate and prioritize a list of health-related problems that you see within the community. Finally, develop a comprehensive community health strategy using one of the problems from that list, including a target population and specific health disparity from the research in your assessment. Specifically, you must address the critical elements must be addressed: I. Community Characteristics: What are the unique characteristics of the community? a) How have the characteristics unique to the community influenced the delivery of nursing services within the community? b) How has this community developed historically? How has this influenced the delivery of nursing services within the community? c) How would you define this community geographically? How does this influence the delivery of nursing services? d) What key groups exist within this community? Would any of these groups be considered a vulnerable population? Why or why not? How is delivering nursing services to these groups affected by local, regional, and national conditions? e) Using census data, define the community in terms of demographics, with a focus on the socioeconomic climate. What are your specific concerns related to health status within the community? II. Community Assessment: What resources exist within the systems of this community? Consider health and social services, educational services, safety, religion, and politics, among others. a) Identify resources at the local level. What influences these resources? Why are they considered social determinants of health? b) Identify resources at the regional level. How are the influences on these resources different than the influences on resources at the local level? Justify your reasoning. c) How are healthcare resources in both the local and regional areas around this community influenced by healthcare policy? Provide support for your answer. d) Do the healthcare resources in this community differ according to the varying demographics? Why or why not? Be sure to support your answer using research or data. e) Analyze the community based on data collected from reliable resources. For example, you might utilize data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Community Health Status Indicators website, or even recent census data. f) What are the strengths and weaknesses of the community that would be integral in the formulation of a community health strategy? Support your answer with data and research. g) What barriers have been identified that may impact successful implementation of that strategy? Support your answer with data and research. h) What areas of opportunity exist for improving the health of the community? Support your answer with data and research. III. Community Health Strategy: Formulate the problem list from the community assessment that you have performed. a) What are the top three problems that the community faces regarding health status? Provide data to support your answer. b) Identify one problem from the list to develop. Be sure to identify the population at risk and the specific health disparity to be addressed. c) Develop a plan that includes at least three interventions that are culturally appropriate based on the role of the nurse and the principles of clinical health nursing. What steps would be taken to ensure that they are culturally appropriate? Be sure to base your interventions on existing evidence and document this evidence within your health plan. d) Which intervention category (primary, secondary, or tertiary) do these intervention strategies fall into? Support your justification with evidence or research. e) Which teaching and learning strategies will you utilize? How will you meet the needs of a variety of different learners? Consider age and cultural differences. f) Who are the key stakeholders that should be included in the planning and implementation of the strategy? Why? g) What strategies will you integrate to ensure buy-in and participation from the community? h) How is your community health strategy aligned with local, regional, national, or global healthcare policies or programs? For example, if nutrition is the prominent issue, you might discuss how the plan aligns with UNICEF’s hunger initiative or Healthy People 2020. Milestones Milestone One: Draft of Community Characteristics In Module Three, you will provide a summary of the community characteristics portion of your community assessment. You will discuss community characteristics, describe demographic and socioeconomic characteristics, identify key groups within the community, and identify health concerns for members of the community. This milestone will be graded with the Milestone One Rubric. Milestone Two: Draft of Community Assessment In Module Four, you will provide a summary of the assessment portion of your community assessment. You will discuss resources within the community, identify strengths and weaknesses of the community, analyze opportunities for improving community health, and identify barriers to successful implementation of a community health strategy. This milestone will be graded with the Milestone Two Rubric. Milestone Three: Draft of Community Health Strategy In Module Six, you will provide a summary of the community health strategy portion of your community assessment. You will discuss community-based problems, describe potential interventions to include in the health strategy, and discuss a teaching and learning strategy that you would utilize.
