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Aspen University Community Community Health Assessments Discussion

 

reply to two classmates. Replies to classmates should be 250 words in length each.

Classmate#1

Community health assessments are important for health professionals to be able to identify health issues and needs within specific communities. The model presents a systematic and comprehensive structure to obtain data and analyze the data to expose flaws and where improvements can be made to help those specific members of the community that may be struggling. Data can show weaknesses as well as strengths, which increases the knowledge of public health, improve upon the weaknesses found, and set benchmarks. Many different agencies and organizations can conduct their own health assessments, for example local and state health departments. There are also specific agencies related to certain health issues. By using assessment models and tools, a logical order can be maintained that include decision-making and actions. Local and state health departments and agencies such as the CDC should have a huge part of a community assessment. There are many resources within these organizations and local and state health departments should be made aware of any potential issues and findings. The assessment will take time; there must be an objective, the objective needs to be researched and thorough data collection must take place. Interviewing community members and organizations will take time. Then, analyzing the data collection and creating a plan to help develop better processes and improve the outcome. A larger community will take longer than a smaller community, so the population and resources available need to be considered when creating a timeline. The timeline should be realistic and not be rushed, unless absolutely necessary because of a critical issue. The role of the public health nurse is to assist in the process of the assessment. Think of it as following the Nursing Process. Public Health Nurses are in the community, assessing the community daily and seeing where deficiencies or weaknesses are. They can help determine these issues and help find solutions for the members of the community. They can also assist in gathering the data, interview people, and evaluate the health of the people within the community. Lastly, public health nurses can get people from the community involved in the process to implement change and help support. It is important to evaluate the health of the community and adjust and improve when needed.

Classmate#2

What are some benefits of using a specific model to assess a community?

some of the benefits to using this specific model would be Organize and planning. Though this comes first in the model I would use this step third because I would first like to engage the community, then see the vision for it the organize and plan for the vision. When a nurse is organizing and planning, they must take into the consideration the resources and environment that the community has for their vision. Having knowledge of the vision and goal is great to know what the nurse and the community need to focus on. The nurse will know this by engaging in the community and interacting with the people. This model then benefits by Conducting a community health assessment(s) to Prioritize health issues and develop a plan of care, for the area in need. After the assessment is done, then we can come up with an improvement plan, we begin to put it into action. We will monitor the plan to see how well it is working and what changes need to be made. Lastly, the benefits of this model would be to evaluate the plan because everything has room for improvement

One good agency that would be great for a community assessment would be the health department. The health department deals with the community in just about every area that affects the community. For example, if there was a food shortage and lack of nutrition in the home, the health department food is involved by knowing the weights, nutrition status and through the WIC program.

a reasonable time frame in which to complete a community-wide assessment would be 6 months to one year. The communities change so rapidly and are so diverse it would take this long to get everyone on board. During this period people are being informed and educated on what the focused plan is. They will also during this time spread the word and assist others to get on board.

Educating and assisting everyone to get on board with the focused plan, is the role of the public nurse in the implementation of the chosen model.

The nurse is the middleman of the focused plan and the community. The nurse will already be educated on every area of the focused plan and has a community connection. This model is a great model and benefit for assessing the community. Establishing community-wide assessment using this model will assist a nurse to quickly obtain the skills, resources, and community connections needed