Purpose
           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
          This assignment allowed me to delve into my community and serve a sector that is of interest to me. I was able to practice health promotion by teaching health education classes and conducting weekly blood pressure screenings. I learned about the extent to which social determinants can affect individual health and to approach health care more holistically. I also learned about the concerns and difficulties that the aggregate and their communities face and various resources that can provide assistance.

    
Reason for Inclusion 
          The inclusion of this assignment is meant to showcase my abilities as a nurse, but also as an educator, advocate, coordinator, and leader in the community. In this assignment, the following objectives are present: 

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• Critical Thinking

  • ​Evaluates nursing care outcomes through the acquisition of data and the questioning of inconsistencies

    • ​Example: Initially, we taught our health classes by using PowerPoint. After evaluating, we found that this was not effective for learning nor engaging the audience. For the remaining classes, we focused on having open discussions, handouts, and interactive games which proved to be far more engaging. 

  • Revises actions and goals based on evidence rather than conjecture​

    • ​Example: Our community health group used Evidence-Based Practice (EBP) to develop a method of promoting health to the Norfolk Drug Court aggregate. We found research articles that supported the use of group educational programs to teach adults about managing their health.

  • Engages in creative problem solving

    • ​Example: During the early weeks of teaching health classes, we noticed that there was low engagement and the Drug Court participants seemed bored listening to one PowerPoint presentation after another. To increase engagement, we created implemented interactive games, such as Jeopardy, in which the aggregate could participate and learn from. This increased engagement significantly. 

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• Nursing Practice

  • Applies appropriate knowledge of major health problems to guide nursing practice.

    • Example: In this paper, we detail how widespread hypertension and diabetes are within our aggregate. This information helped guide our weekly teachings. Topics that we included aimed to help manage these conditions; this included nutrition, diabetes management, stress management, and the importance of physical exercise

  • Implements traditional nursing care practices as appropriate to provide holistic health care to diverse populations across the lifespan

    • Example: Part of traditional nursing care is education. To provide holistic care, my group and I considered their social determinants and adjusted our teachings to suit their needs and concerns. The Drug Court aggregate mainly consisted of middle-aged, African-American adults. 

  • Demonstrates an awareness of complementary modalities and their usefulness in promoting health.

    • Example: One of our health education topics was stress management. We emphasized that reducing stress can reduce hypertension and lead to better health outcomes. We included that meditation and deep breathing are complementary modalities to relieving stress and reducing high blood pressure.

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

    • ​Example: To evaluate the effectiveness of our health education, we utilized an ongoing blood pressure chart, pre- and post-tests, sleep logs, and the teach-back method.  
       

• Communication

  • Expresses oneself and communicates effectively with diverse groups and disciplines using a variety of media.

    • Example: In this paper, we discuss how we utilized PowerPoints, brochures, and educational handouts to teach our health education to the Norfolk Drug Court participants

  • Demonstrates skills in using technology, informatics, and communication devices that support safe nursing practice.

    • Example: Our community health group demonstrated our technology, informatics, and communication skills by creating PowerPoint presentations to relay health information.

  • Accesses and utilizes data and information from a wide range of sources to enhance patient and professional communication.

    • ​Example: In our literature review, we utilized information and data from several research articles to support that our communication interventions were going to be effective. This included interventions such as group education, weekly health teachings, and goal setting. In addition, we acquired information from a wide range of sources to put together our weekly health classes.  

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• Teaching

  • ​Provides teaching to patients and/or professionals about health care procedures and technologies in preparation for and following nursing or medical intervention

    • ​Example: Our community health group educated the Drug Court aggregate on the importance of regular blood pressure screenings and what they consist of. We then implemented weekly blood pressure checks.

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

    • Example: This assignment includes how my group utilized technologies, such as PowerPoint and YouTube, to present our health education classes to the Drug Court participants. Our presentations promoted health by teaching proper nutrition, stress-relief techniques, and the importance of sleep and exercise. Our presentations also included ways to reduce the risk of acquiring diabetes and preventing diseases such as heart disease.

  • Uses information technologies and other appropriate methods to enhance one’s own knowledge base.

    • Example: We conducted research on various implementation strategies which added to our knowledge base of effective interventions. For example, we learned that regular blood pressure screenings can have positive health outcomes, so we implemented weekly blood pressure checks.

• Research

  • Evaluates research that focuses on the efficacy and effectiveness of nursing interventions.

    • ​Example: In our literature review section, we provided research articles that support the effectiveness of our implementation strategies such as group education and increasing health literacy through education. Both of these strategies have been shown to increase learning and health management.

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• 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.

    • ​Example: I demonstrated leadership as an educator when I designed and taught health education and promotion classes to suit the needs of the Norfolk Drug Court population.

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

    • Example: This project enabled us to work with the Norfolk Drug Court program to provide its participants with weekly health education classes. In the beginning, we found that hypertension was prevalent. As a result, we implemented blood pressure screenings and class lectures on reducing blood pressure

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

    • Example: Our group organized, managed, and developed the idea of teaching health education classes and implementing blood pressure screenings weekly to Drug Court participants. We evaluated our strategies by comparing blood pressure readings from our first week with the aggregate to the very last week. We also evaluated our teachings by using the teach-back method.