NR-443 Week 2 Assignment: Community Windshield Survey Form

Purpose
The purpose of this assignment is to complete a direct observational assessment of a community in your
area. This windshield survey will help you to identify a vulnerable population, an important community health
problem, and a related Healthy People 2020 objective for a community in your area.

Course Outcomes

This assignment enables the student to meet the following Course Outcomes.

• CO2: Assess the health needs of individuals, families, aggregates, and communities using demographic and
  epidemiological data to identify population health risks. (PO4)
• CO6: Utilize a systems-based and collaborative approach to address factors that influence the health of a
  community and population health problems. (PO2)

Guidelines

Below are the requirements needed for successful completion of the Windshield Survey Form.

Introduction to the Community: Identify the community you will be using for this assignment with the city and
state, and provide a brief, one-paragraph description of the community. Your community should be the area
where you live or the area surrounding your work setting. The community must include a residential area and
be a large enough area to answer the survey questions. Do not include epidemiological or demographic data
as this is based on what you observe.

Windshield Survey: Assess your community by doing a windshield survey. Information about the components
of a windshield survey is located in your textbook, Nies and McEwen (2019). Drive through the area and
report your observations by answering the questions on the form. Be sure to include what you observed
related to each of these categories, and also include any significant items that are missing in your community
because this may be equally important in identifying a community health problem.

• Community vitality
• Indicators of social and economic conditions
• Health resources
• Environmental conditions related to health
• Social functioning
• Attitude toward healthcare

Note: It is helpful to conduct this assessment at least two different times: during the day or evening, on a
weekday, and/or on the weekend. If possible, plan on asking someone to drive during your survey so that you
can take notes.

Vulnerable population: Identify the aggregate or vulnerable populations that you observed in your community
during your drive through. What did you observe about this population?

Community problem: Based on your assessment in the survey above, identify and discuss one priority
community health problem that a community health nurse could positively impact.

Example: If you observed teens who were pregnant or had young children during your survey and felt this
was a priority problem in your community, the diagnosis could be

Risk of unintended pregnancy among adolescent girls in XXXX community as evidence by observation of
pregnant teens and teens caring for young children during windshield survey.
Healthy People 2020 Objective: Go to the Healthy People topic areas at
https://www.healthypeople.gov/2020/topics-objectives. Find a topic area that relates to one of the vulnerable
populations you observed. Click on the topic area, and then click on the green Objectives tab. Review the
objectives within that topic area to complete the relevant sections of the form. State the Healthy People 2020
objective number (not just a goal) that describes your problem.

Example: The topic area Family Planning would be relevant. You would click on Family Planning, and then
click the green Objectives tab, and you might choose

FP-8.1 “Reduce pregnancies among adolescent females aged 15 to 17 years” (U.S. Department of Health
and Human Services: Healthy People 2020, 2018, Objectives: Family Planning, para 8).
Summary: Complete the summary of learning section.

References: The purpose of this assignment is to document your observations of your community. Outside
sources other than Healthy People 2020 should not be used. We have included this reference on the Windshield Survey form for you.

Best Practices in Completing the Form

The following are best practices in preparing this project.

• Make sure all elements of the form are included.
• Review directions and grading rubric thoroughly.
• Use a professional writing style with complete sentences in the fill-in sections.
• Check for spelling and grammar errors prior to final submission.