Community Health Assessment

Question Description
Write a 2–4-page report on the concepts, processes, and tools needed to conduct a community health assessment, how to find the data, and how to validate the data. Explain the factors that can affect the health of a community, along with how to obtain that information. Understanding community and state health care issues and concerns, the local resources available, and accessibility of those resources can inform health care practices and improve quality patient outcomes. Show Less By successfully completing this assessment, you will demonstrate your proficiency in the following course competencies and assessment criteria:
Competency 2: Describe the concepts, processes, and tools required to conduct comprehensive health assessments for individuals, families, communities, and populations. Community Health Assessment
Describe the data necessary to make an informed community health assessment.
Explain a strategy for obtaining data and how data helps determine the health needs of a community.
Explain how to establish the validity and reliability of data used in a community health assessment.
Competency 3: Explain the internal and external factors that can affect the health of individuals, families, communities, and populations.
Explain how to obtain information on and what the factors are that affect the health and wellness of a community.
Competency 4: Communicate in a manner that is scholarly, professional, and consistent with expectations of a nursing professional.
Write content clearly and logically with correct use of grammar, punctuation, APA formatting, and mechanics.
Competency Map
Check Your ProgressUse this online tool to track your performance and progress through your course.
Toggle Drawer
Context
Social and lifestyle behaviors can affect health. In fact, some would argue that many, if not most, health risks can be mitigated through lifestyle and behavioral changes. With this in mind, the health care provider must be aware of the socioeconomic factors and the lifestyle factors present in a population. Show Less Both social and cultural factors influence many lifestyle factors. Living environment, housing conditions, employment factors, diet, and cultural beliefs all play a role in a person’s levels of risk and resulting health. The nursing assessment must include these social influences as part of the domain necessary for evaluation and inclusion in the assessment approach, and integrate a framework for analysis, which includes all the social milieus associated with each dimension. Evidence-based health assessments are done using health data from private and public organizations. There are many opportunities for gathering health data in a community, through public health systems and through private records, where approval has been obtained from participants. Collecting primary data must involve informed consent. Secondary sources can also be used by obtaining aggregate data from health plans and health care providers that do not include personalized demographic data. Each of these data sources can be important to forming a picture of a community’s health, which can then be compared to national standard data such as that provided through Healthy People 2020. Understanding the current health status and the perceived needs of a community can help to provide the valuable information needed to set forth a plan which evaluates the current and future health needs of the community. Community Health Assessment
Toggle Drawer
Questions to Consider
To deepen your understanding, you are encouraged to consider the questions below and discuss them with a fellow learner, a work associate, an interested friend, or a member of your professional community.
What types of techniques and activities should be included in a community health assessment?
How can these techniques and activities help determine both assets and gaps in health care services in a community?
Toggle Drawer
Resources
SUGGESTED RESOURCES
The following optional resources are provided to support you in completing the assessment or to provide a helpful context. For additional resources, refer to the Research Resources and Supplemental Resources in the left navigation menu of your courseroom.
Capella Resources
APA Paper Template.
APA Paper Tutorial.
Library Resources
The following e-books or articles from the Capella University Library are linked directly in this course:
Hart, P. L., & Mareno, N. (2014). Cultural challenges and barriers through the voices of nurses. Journal Of Clinical Nursing, 23(15/16), 2223–2233.
Estrada, D. M. (2011). A community risk assessment of the city of Santa Ana, California (Doctoral dissertation). Retrieved from ProQuest database. (UMI Number: 1499248).
Johnson, C. V., Bartgis, J., Worley, J. A., Hellman, C. M., & Burkhart, R. (2010). Urban Indian voices: A community-based participatory research health and needs assessment. American Indian and Alaska Native Mental Health Research, 17(1), 49–70.
Nieto, F. J., Peppard, P. E., Engelman, C. D., McElroy, J. A., Galvao, L. W., Friedman, E. M., & . . . Malecki, K. C. (2010). The Survey of the Health of Wisconsin (SHOW), a novel infrastructure for population health research: rationale and methods. BMC Public Health, 10, 785–796.
Show Less
Course Library Guide
A Capella University library guide has been created specifically for your use in this course. You are encouraged to refer to the resources in the BSN-FP4002 – Assessment, Communication, and Collaboration Library Guide to help direct your research.
Internet Resources
Access the following resources by clicking the links provided. Please note that URLs change frequently. Permissions for the following links have either been granted or deemed appropriate for educational use at the time of course publication.
Healthy People 2020. (2015). Retrieved from http://www.healthypeople.gov/
Community Health Status Indicators (CHSI 2015). (2015). Retrieved from http://wwwn.cdc.gov/communityhealth
National Center for Health Statistics. (2015). Retrieved from http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/
Bookstore Resources
The resources listed below are relevant to the topics and assessments in this course and are not required. Unless noted otherwise, these materials are available for purchase from the Capella University Bookstore. When searching the bookstore, be sure to look for the Course ID with the specific –FP (FlexPath) course designation.
Clark, C. C., & Paraska, K. K. (2014). Health promotion for nurses: A practical guide. Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett.
Chapters 6, 7, and 8
Maurer, F. A., & Smith, C. M. (2013). Community/public health nursing practice: Health for families and populations (5th ed.). St. Louis, MO: Saunders Elsevier.
Chapter 19
Assessment Instructions
Imagine you work for an organization that has decided to open a satellite facility in an underserved community. Your organization asks you to move to the new location and assist with some of the preliminary work. Part of this work is to determine the health care needs of the community. How will you do this? What information will you need to know? Where will you find the information?
PREPARATION
Search the Capella library and the Internet for peer-reviewed journal articles on how to conduct a community health assessment. You will need at least 3 resources to use in this assessment.
DIRECTIONS
Develop a plan for a community health assessment in which you complete the following:
Describe the type of data needed to make an informed community health assessment.
Explain how the data will help determine the health care needs of the community.
Describe your strategy for obtaining the necessary data.
Explain the factors that impact the health and wellness of a community. (Hint: This is a very broad list. Think outside the box on this one!)
Explain how you will obtain information on these factors for your specific community.
Explain how you will determine if the data and information you obtain is valid and reliable.
Format this assessment as a report that you would submit to a director or other organizational leader. You are still required to follow APA guidelines for in-text citations and references.
ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS
Include a title page and reference page.
Ensure your assessment is 2–4 pages in length.
Use double-spaced, 12-pt., Times New Roman font. (Recommended)

You must proofread your paper. But do not strictly rely on your computer’s spell-checker and grammar-checker; failure to do so indicates a lack of effort on your part and you can expect your grade to suffer accordingly. Papers with numerous misspelled words and grammatical mistakes will be penalized. Read over your paper – in silence and then aloud – before handing it in and make corrections as necessary. Often it is advantageous to have a friend proofread your paper for obvious errors. Handwritten corrections are preferable to uncorrected mistakes.

Use a standard 10 to 12 point (10 to 12 characters per inch) typeface. Smaller or compressed type and papers with small margins or single-spacing are hard to read. It is better to let your essay run over the recommended number of pages than to try to compress it into fewer pages.

Likewise, large type, large margins, large indentations, triple-spacing, increased leading (space between lines), increased kerning (space between letters), and any other such attempts at “padding” to increase the length of a paper are unacceptable, wasteful of trees, and will not fool your professor. Community Health Assessment

The paper must be neatly formatted, double-spaced with a one-inch margin on the top, bottom, and sides of each page. When submitting hard copy, be sure to use white paper and print out using dark ink. If it is hard to read your essay, it will also be hard to follow your argument.

ADDITIONAL INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE CLASS

Discussion Questions (DQ)

Initial responses to the DQ should address all components of the questions asked, include a minimum of one scholarly source, and be at least 250 words.
Successful responses are substantive (i.e., add something new to the discussion, engage others in the discussion, well-developed idea) and include at least one scholarly source.
One or two sentence responses, simple statements of agreement or “good post,” and responses that are off-topic will not count as substantive. Substantive responses should be at least 150 words.
I encourage you to incorporate the readings from the week (as applicable) into your responses.
Weekly Participation

Your initial responses to the mandatory DQ do not count toward participation and are graded separately.
In addition to the DQ responses, you must post at least one reply to peers (or me) on three separate days, for a total of three replies.
Participation posts do not require a scholarly source/citation (unless you cite someone else’s work).
Part of your weekly participation includes viewing the weekly announcement and attesting to watching it in the comments. These announcements are made to ensure you understand everything that is due during the week.
APA Format and Writing Quality

Familiarize yourself with APA format and practice using it correctly. It is used for most writing assignments for your degree. Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for APA paper templates, citation examples, tips, etc. Points will be deducted for poor use of APA format or absence of APA format (if required).
Cite all sources of information! When in doubt, cite the source. Paraphrasing also requires a citation.
I highly recommend using the APA Publication Manual, 6th edition.
Use of Direct Quotes

I discourage overutilization of direct quotes in DQs and assignments at the Masters’ level and deduct points accordingly.
As Masters’ level students, it is important that you be able to critically analyze and interpret information from journal articles and other resources. Simply restating someone else’s words does not demonstrate an understanding of the content or critical analysis of the content.
It is best to paraphrase content and cite your source.
LopesWrite Policy

For assignments that need to be submitted to LopesWrite, please be sure you have received your report and Similarity Index (SI) percentage BEFORE you do a “final submit” to me.
Once you have received your report, please review it. This report will show you grammatical, punctuation, and spelling errors that can easily be fixed. Take the extra few minutes to review instead of getting counted off for these mistakes.
Review your similarities. Did you forget to cite something? Did you not paraphrase well enough? Is your paper made up of someone else’s thoughts more than your own?
Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for tips on improving your paper and SI score.
Late Policy

The university’s policy on late assignments is 10% penalty PER DAY LATE. This also applies to late DQ replies.
Please communicate with me if you anticipate having to submit an assignment late. I am happy to be flexible, with advance notice. We may be able to work out an extension based on extenuating circumstances.
If you do not communicate with me before submitting an assignment late, the GCU late policy will be in effect.
I do not accept assignments that are two or more weeks late unless we have worked out an extension.
As per policy, no assignments are accepted after the last day of class. Any assignment submitted after midnight on the last day of class will not be accepted for grading.
Communication

Communication is so very important. There are multiple ways to communicate with me:
Questions to Instructor Forum: This is a great place to ask course content or assignment questions. If you have a question, there is a good chance one of your peers does as well. This is a public forum for the class.
Individual Forum: This is a private forum to ask me questions or send me messages. This will be checked at least once every 24 hours.