Module Components

• Overview

Topics

• Definitions
• Case Study: Curtis Bay
• Community Assessment and Diagnosis
• Role of the Public Health Nurse
• Resources for Assignments

Nurs 467 - Public Health Nursing

Module 3: Community Assessments, Analysis & Diagnosis

Definitions

Aggregate: Any number of individuals with at least one common characteristic.

Assessment: The regular and systematic collection, assembly, analysis and dissemination of information about the health of a community. It is a key component of all public health practice that involves collecting data that help to describe the population, its health status and health risks. (Maurer and Smith, 2009)

Community: An open social system that is characterized by people in a place who have common goals over time (Mauer & Smith, 2009).

Community Assessment: The process of systematically collecting information about a community’s structure, processes and dynamics, its physical and social environment, its populations, and its level of health and wellness to determine its strengths, its resources, its populations of interest and populations at risk, its health needs, and its health priorities. (Henry Street Model for Nurses)

Data Gathering: Process of obtaining existing information.

Data Generating: Process of creating new information.

Determinants of Health: The range of personal, social, economic, and environmental factors that influence health status (HP2020). Health determinants may have a positive or negative effect on individual or population health.

Evidence-based public health: The development, implementation, and evaluation of effective programs and policies in public health through the application of principles of scientific reasoning, including systematic uses of data and information systems and appropriate use of behavioral science theory and program planning models. (CHSI)

Geopolitical Community: communities formed by either natural or human-made boundaries; a spatial designation.

Health Indicator: quantifiable characteristics of an individual, population or environment that are used as evidence to describe one or more aspects of the health of an individual or population.

Healthy People 2020: Healthy People provides science-based, 10-year national objectives for improving the health of all Americans. For 3 decades, Healthy People has established benchmarks and monitored progress over time in order to, encourage collaborations across communities and sectors, empower individuals toward making informed health decisions and measure the impact of prevention activities.

Key Informants: Members of the community who are knowledgeable about the health status, interests, community problems and strengths and possible solutions. (Maurer and Smith)

Phenomenological Community: A phenomenological community is a group of people who have shared or like-minded relationships, values, interests, beliefs and goals. The phenomenological community does not necessarily share geographical boundaries.

Population: A collection of individuals who share one or more personal or environmental characteristics, the most common of which is geographic location.

Priority Setting: Organizing health concerns by hazard level so that health risks that place populations, communities or individuals at risk are dealt with first. (Henry Street Model for Nurses)

Public Health Nursing Process: An interdisciplinary and inclusive process that builds upon the basic nursing process of assessment, diagnosis, planning, implementation and evaluation. At the community level, this involves partnering with the community and other relevant agencies. (Henry Street Model for Nurses)

Windshield Survey: Observation of a community while driving a car or riding public transportation to collect data for a community assessment. (Harkness and DeMarco)