Section 2: Developing Community Health Programs: The Process

Unit 5: Assessing and Analyzing a Community

Overview

"Community and population health assessment is a systematic process; it is the act of becoming acquainted with a community and its people. The people of the community are our partners and contribute throughout the process; the assessment phase is their point of entry into the process of inquiry, planning, implementing programs, and evaluating their success". (Vollman, 2017, p.218).

Learning Outcomes

By completing this unit, you will be able to

discuss the use of models to guide community health nursing practice;
explain the importance of determining population health indicators in relation to community health programming;
identify a group within a community as a client of community health nursing practice;
apply the assessment phase of a selected nursing model to a group within a selected community; and
apply various methods of data collection in the assessment of a group within a selected community

434 Unit 5 from AU FHD on Vimeo.

Focusing

Think of as many examples as you can to complete the following statement:

Community is _______________________

Take a moment to write your responses so that you can refer back to them.

Practicing

As you work to complete the learning activities of this Unit you may find it helpful to refer to the following:

Community Health Nurses of Canada. (March, 2011). Canadian community health nursing: Professional practice model and standards of practice, located at https://www.chnc.ca/en/standards-of-practice

Vollman (2017), Chapters 1, 15 and 16, of the course text.

KU Work Group for Community Health and Development (2016) Community Tool Box located at http://ctb.ku.edu/en

Public Health Agency of Canada (2012) Population Health Promotion: An Integrated Model of Population health and health promotion located at http://www.phac-aspc.gc.ca/ph-sp/php-psp/php3-eng.php

Learning Activity 1: How does one choose a community health model to guide one’s practice?

Standard 1: Health Promotion, article f, of the Canadian Community Health Nurses Association Standards of Practice located at https://www.chnc.ca/en/standards-of-practice states,

The community health nurse: facilitates planned change with the individual/community
population through the application of the Population Health Promotion Model.

Identifies the level of intervention necessary to promote health

Identifies which determinants of health require action/change to promote health

Utilizes a comprehensive range of strategies to address health-related issues. (p.10)

Consider the following:

You are one of several community health nurses working in the Community Health Centre in your area. Over lunch you comment on the number of moms who have asked you about infant massage and where they might go to take a course. Several of the other community health nurses indicate they have had similar requests.

In examining the Population Health Promotion model, the Canadian community-as-partner model (CCAP) and the Community Health Nurses Association Standards of Practice, where might you begin an assessment of this group?

Make a list of what you would assess.

Learning Activity 2: What methods of assessment will you use?

Essential questions to ask are:

What kind of information is needed?
How will the information be attained?
What will be done with the information once it is collected?

Answers to the above questions will guide the type of assessment method utilized.

Refer to your list of what you would like to assess about the group in Learning Activity 1: - moms seeking an infant massage course and using knowledge gained from the readings complete the following table on methods of assessment.

Printable version here (in Word doc format).

Assessment Method	Example of when to use	Strengths	Weaknesses
Secondary Analysis
Windshield Surveys
Surveys & Questionnaires
Informant Interviewing

Learning Activity 3: Identifying a Group you would like to work with

In community health programming, "client" is viewed as being a number of persons with something in common, also referred to as a "group". Groups or collections of people who meet, who share common purpose, who identify with one another. Alternatively, groups may be populations, which are less organized collections of people who have something in common, like a demographic feature such as age, ethnic background, or place of employment; or they may share a common health concern, such as risk of heart disease or promoting relaxation in infants. Groups, or populations are one way of defining a community.

Consider a group or population with which you would like to complete your community assessment for Assignment 3.

If you think about the above examples of groups and populations, what immediate questions come to mind?

If your questions lead you to the conclusion that the above examples are too broad, then you are on the correct path. In order to make this assessment manageable, you should narrow your focus and develop a clear statement of exactly who the group or population that you wish to study is. For example, the population of interest may be preschool age children with attention deficit disorder. This would present a narrower focus, however it may still be too broad to be assessed in a meaningful way during this course.

You might want to consider phrasing the question as, who exactly represents the group or who is the target population that I am interested in?

For example, the group or target population may be preschool age children diagnosed with attention deficit disorder who attend day care full time. You may find it helpful to choose a group or population that you are familiar with and have access to as formal or informal conversations with individuals may serve to compliment other assessment data.

It is strongly recommended that you discuss your ideas with your course tutor via Course Mail to facilitate identification of a suitable group or target population prior to beginning your assessment.

Reflecting

What is the overall goal of population health and how is it achieved?

Consider discussing your ideas with your NURS434 Study Buddy or posting your ideas to the Unit 5: Reflecting Forum to engage in discussion with the community of learners in this course

References

Community Health Nurses of Canada. (2011, March). Canadian community health nursing: Professional practice model and standards of practice, located at https://www.chnc.ca/en/standards-of-practice

Public Health Agency of Canada. (2012). Population health promotion: An integrated model of population health and health promotion. Retrieved from http://www.phac-aspc.gc.ca/ph-sp/php-psp/php4-eng.php

Vollman, A.R. (2017). A model to guide practice. In A.R. Vollman, E.T. Anderson, & J. McFarlane (Eds.), Canadian community as partner: Theory & multidisciplinary practice (4th ed.). (203-217). Philadelphia: Wolters Kluwer.

Vollman, A.R. (2017). Community assessment. In A.R. Vollman, E.T. Anderson, & J. McFarlane (Eds.), Canadian community as partner: Theory & multidisciplinary practice (4th ed.). (218-243). Philadelphia: Wolters Kluwer.

University of Kansas, Work Group for Community Health and Development. (2016). The community tool box. Retrieved from http://ctb.ku.edu/en