ESSAY : Community Health Assessment

Overview
Write a 3 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.

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.
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.

Assessment Instruction’s:
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?

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.

SAMPLE SOLUTION

Community Health Assessment
Type of Data Needed to Make an Informed Community Health Assessment
Community health assessment involves collecting, processing, and analyzing information of a state, county, or community using systematic approaches. The types of data needed relate to community’s medical history, insurance information, test and laboratory results, estimated total population, and demographics. Other essential information relates to the population’s health ranking, religious and cultural beliefs, languages spoken, and level of income. This will be fundamental in determining the appropriate health care needs of the underserved population. The information may be categorized as primary data, secondary data, or indicators. Primary data will be collected through surveys, questionnaires, interviews, and observations. Secondary data, on the other hand, will be sourced from materials such as medical journals, books, articles, and government databases. Indicators are similar to secondary data and they are used to…