Purpose of Assignment

The purpose of this assignment is to involve students in the comprehensive community needs assessment. Students will develop/utilize tools to identify perceived factors (both negative and positive) that impinge on the population’s health. This information will then be used to develop and implement strategies for health promotion.

Student Approach to Assignment

During my yearlong community health experience, a group of my peers and I were provided with knowledge of health disparities, issues, and barriers that impact my local community and global communities alike. We took this information into our designated community and assessed possible health related needs while developing a targeted intervention that was evidenced based.

Reason for Inclusion of this Assignment in the Portfolio

This required assignment is relevant for inclusion because it shows my personal growth with evaluating nursing research, my ability to evaluate my local community’s health related needs, and my ability to synthesize research into an implemented intervention to research a desired outcome. Furthermore, this assignment depicts my ability to act in a leadership position and to cooperate effectively as a member of a group.

1. Critical Thinking

   • Revises actions and goals based on evidence rather than conjecture

     • Example: This criterion was met between the contrast of both papers. In the first paper, my group had originally been examining lifestyle factors that increased the risk of childhood obesity and hypertension. These factors included research mainly concerning lack of sleep and increased screen time among children. However, as explained in the second paper the data gathered from our aggregate did not represent our original assumptions. Thus, our actions had been revised to focus on health teaching interventions that addressed the knowledge deficits that where present in our aggregate. These deficits included nutrition, physical activity, and general health information in the form of a student organized health fair. 

2. Nursing Practice

   • Establishes and/or utilizes outcome measures to evaluate the effectiveness of care

     • Example: In the evaluation portion of the second paper, my group and I explained the desired outcomes that we utilized to evaluate the effectiveness of our care. For example, we explained that we had desired an outcome of 75% of participants will report a desire to decrease their sugar intake, 50% of participants will report a desire to eat more fresh vegetables and exercise regularly, and participants will demonstrate emergency medical services (EMS) activation and cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) technique. We evaluated using personal reflection and a post-test Q&A regarding knowledge gained and likelihood to utilize new knowledge in daily life. Finally, we explain that we also evaluated effectiveness of teachings with the teach back method where the participants could show us what they had learned in each activity.

3. Teaching

   • Uses information technologies and other appropriate methods to communicate health promotion, risk reduction, and disease prevention across the lifespan

     • Example: In the second community health paper, I explained that during the health fair we utilized a multitude of information technologies and other appropriate methods to provide our health teachings to our group. As explained in the paper, one of the stations in the health fair was the cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) station. At this station, the children and adults in the group watched an informative video on the proper technique and when to perform CPR. This was followed by professional instruction and active demonstration of skills learned on the CPR mannequins. Another example of the use technologies and other appropriate methods in health promotion and disease prevention was utilization of electronic vital signs machines. At another station, the participants were able to have a full set of vital signs read and the meanings behind the reading explained. This provided the opportunity to teach ways such as diet and exercise to help lower or maintain blood pressure. Thus, promoting health, reducing risk, and preventing disease.

   • Evaluates the efficacy of health promotion and education modalities for use in a variety of settings with diverse populations

     • In the second paper, I explained the efficacy of health promotion and educational modalities utilized during the student organized health fair. For example, as mentioned in the implementation portion of the paper, during one of the five health education stations participants were involved in an immersive nutritional and exercise hybrid activity. At the beginning of the activity, an informal pre-test was given on nutritional and exercise-based knowledge regarding calories and macro nutrients to establish a baseline. The activity had the participants eat one gummy bear that equaled ten calories. While eating the gummy bear the participants were quizzed and lectured on knowledge regarding calories and macros nutrients. After this stage was completed, I instructed the participants to join me in a one-minute cardiovascular exercise of high knees, this would burn off roughly ten calories. Finally, we tested the knowledge gained from these activities with an informal post-test Q&A. We found that an average of 80% of the participants had a measurable increase in health-related knowledge and personal desire to implement a least one teaching into their daily life.

4. Research

   • Shares research findings with colleagues

     • Example: During this project, a portion of this assignment was to synthesize the project and all the findings into a poster that would be presented. Therefore, my group and I were able to present our findings to community partners, fellow students, registered nurses, and ODU faculty. This allowed us to explain findings, challenges, barriers to learning/ teaching, and our recommendations of continued partnership with the UP organization. We were also able to hopefully spark an interest with the junior class about continuing and building upon the health fair when they are seniors.    

5. Leadership

   • Assumes a leadership role within one’s scope of practice as a designer, manager, and coordinator of health care to meet the special needs of populations

   • Initiates community partnerships to establish health promotion goals and implements strategies to meet those goals

   • Organizes, manages, and evaluates the development of strategies to promote healthy communities

     • Example: In the second paper, a group of peers and I explained our strategy of developing, managing, and coordinating a health fair that was designed to help combat disparities in health-related knowledge and childhood obesity in Portsmouth, Virginia. For example, we explained that we coordinated with the UP organization to have them bring the youth they work with to the Old Dominion University (ODU) School of Nursing (SON) in Virginia Beach to our health fair. The health fair consisted of five separate stations that were all specifically aimed at increasing the participants knowledge in positive health related practices such as physical activity, proper nutrition, healthy vital signs, handwashing, and cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) teachings. The strategy was to provide one health teaching at every station that was explained in normal language. Finally, we explained that we evaluated each participant on their understanding of the information, knowledge gained, and likelihood to utilize the information. This evaluation was done using ether Q&A or the teach back method.

6. Culture

   • Maintains an awareness of global environmental factors that may influence the delivery of health care services

     • Example:  Throughout both papers, my group and I constantly took into consideration environmental factors that influence the delivery of health services of our aggregate. For example, in the barriers portion of the second paper we mention that possible barriers to implementation of provided health teachings at home may result from how easy it is to reach an appointment at a hospital or clinic. If the family does not own a car, it may be less likely for them to go to a routine checkup or appointment that we recommended. We also had to take into consideration the grocery stores and healthy food options that are in the environment or our aggregate. Thus, we explained in our interventions, when providing our nutrition intervention, we had to provide the aggregate with stores in their areas that carry these options.

• Integrates knowledge of cultural diversity in performing nursing interventions

  • Example: In the second paper, my group and I explain that when developing our teaching interventions we had to take into consideration the wide age range, learning levels, physical fitness levels, and other cultural factors such as if they participants eat meat or not, when developing our activities. This would greatly affect how our health fair operated and we had to be flexible. To mitigate these concerns, we explained that we prepared multiple nutrition sources we could teach the participants about. We also explained that we alternate exercise for those with disabilities and would teach in plain language for all to understand.