Windshield Survey

Conduct a windshield survey to identify a population and its primary health concern. Develop a 3–5-page report that explains demographic changes for a population and describes the health disparities and social determinants of health that can affect the population.

Note: The assessments in this course build upon each other. You are strongly encouraged to complete them in sequence.

By successfully completing this assessment, you will demonstrate your proficiency in the following course competencies and assessment criteria:

• Competency 1: Explain the principles and concepts of disease prevention and health promotion for diverse and vulnerable populations.
  • Describe a vulnerable or diverse population living within a neighborhood or community.
  • Describe disease prevention and health promotion for a vulnerable or diverse population. 
• Competency 4: Examine the ethical, legal, and economic factors related to health disparities in diverse and vulnerable populations.
  • Identify health disparities and social determinants of health that can affect a vulnerable or diverse population.
• Competency 5: Communicate in a manner that is scholarly, professional, and consistent with expectations for members of the health care professions.
  • Describe the overall condition of a neighborhood or community.
  • Write content clearly and logically, with correct use of grammar, punctuation, APA formatting, and mechanics.

As the population of the United States grows more diverse, the health care workforce must increase awareness of cultural differences and the overall shift in the demographics of the entire population. To provide high-quality health care to a community or population, health workers and educators must be competent in their understanding of the relevant characteristics of its ethnic or cultural groups. The ability of nurses to deliver high-quality care to a diverse population will influence health prevention and the treatment of illness.

Windshield Surveys

A windshield survey helps you create a portrait of the people who live within a specific neighborhood or community. This is an inexpensive, time-efficient way to assess and better understand a community and the people who live within that community. Understanding the demographics of a community will help you determine the kinds of health-related issues that are likely to exist, so you can plan the most appropriate types of wellness programs, health education, and disease prevention

Preparation

Over the past few years, leadership for the health care organization for which you work has noticed a distinct change in the population served by the organization. Leadership wants to make sure they are addressing the needs of this population. You have been asked to participate on an interdisciplinary team that is charged with learning how the population has changed and what needs to be done within the organization to develop a wellness education program that will target the needs and concerns of the population. Your first step in this process is to conduct a windshield survey and report your findings back to your team.

A windshield survey is an inexpensive, time-efficient way to assess and better understand a community and the people who live within that community. Understanding the demographics of a community will help you determine the health-related issues that are likely to exist so you can plan the most appropriate types of wellness programs, health education, and disease prevention programs. Windshield surveys are done by making visual observations of a neighborhood or community while driving; hence the name. This type of survey lets you observe the housing conditions, use of open spaces, shopping, schools, types of transportation, human services, protective services, and other aspects of the overall daily life of a community.

Before you start, you need to identify the boundaries of the neighborhood or community you plan to observe. For the purposes of this course, you should keep the size of the area to no more than 2–3 square miles. The area should be large enough for you to gather relevant information, but small enough that your observation does not take you more than 1–2 hours. With this size, it is not necessary to use a car to complete the survey; you can also walk or bike. Whichever method you use, be mindful of your personal safety. It may be helpful to map out the route you will take ahead of time. It can also be helpful (and safer) to have another person do the driving while you observe and make notes.

Once you are on the route, start making observations right away. Stop frequently to write down notes. A template is provided in the Required Resources to help you document your observations.

The timing of your observation can be important in helping you focus on specific items. If possible, consider conducting your survey more than once at different times of the day. For example, if you make your observations too early in the morning, you may miss things that take place later in the day that provide a different perspective of the neighborhood. It is also important to be as objective as possible when making your observations.

Requirements

• Conduct the windshield survey, using the template located in the Required Resources for this assessment.
• Use the template as a guide to write a report for your team. If possible, look at other written documents used within your organization. How are they formatted? Follow that format as closely as possible, making sure you still use APA guidelines for your in-text references, citations, and reference page.

Based on your observations and notes from your survey experience, write a report that includes the following:

• Describe, briefly, the neighborhood or community you observed (overall condition, types of spaces and businesses, evidence of services, and so forth).
• Describe a vulnerable or diverse population you observed living within the neighborhood or community.

Now you will need to do some research on the population you described:

• Explain how the demographics for the population have changed over the past 5–10 years. Note: This information should be readily available through the United States Census Bureau, similar state Web sites, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, or other professional sites. Be sure your information is current.
• Describe the most prevalent health risks for the population. For example, if your population is senior citizens, then the health risks might be diabetes and loss of mobility. Include statistics on the health risks, such as frequency of occurrence in the population and number of deaths per year in the population.
• Identify the health disparities and social determinants of health that can affect the population. In other words, what will you need to overcome to develop a successful health promotion and disease prevention program for the population?

Your completed assessment should be 3–5 pages in length, not including the title page and reference page. Support your information with references to at least three professional, scholarly, or government resources, and follow current APA guidelines for your in-text citations and references.

Additional Requirements

• Include a title page and reference page. The completed assessment should be 3–5 pages in length, not including the title page and reference page.
• Reference at least three current scholarly, professional, or government resources.
• Use current APA format for citations and references.
• Use Times New Roman font, 12 point.
• Double space.

Pharmacological Treatments

Create a 10–12-slide PowerPoint presentation to identify medications associated with a chosen disease or health condition, explain the actions and side effects of the medications, and discuss any controversies related to the medications. Explain a treatment regime, including pharmacology, for the disease or health condition you selected, along with how the treatment regime may affect a client’s lifestyle.

By successfully completing this assessment, you will demonstrate your proficiency in the following course competencies and assessment criteria:

• Competency 1: Apply practice guidelines and standards of evidence-based practice related to pharmacology for safe and effective nursing practice.
  • Identify the pharmacological agents most often used in the treatment of a disease or health condition.
  • Describe the treatment regime, including pharmacology, most often prescribed for a disease or health condition.
  • Explain the controversies related to a pharmacological agent.
• Competency 2: Explain the relationship between quality patient outcomes, patient safety, and the appropriate use of pharmacology and psychopharmacology.
  • Explain the types of actions, side effects, indications, and contraindications that may be expected from a pharmacological treatment.
  • Describe how a treatment regime, including pharmacology, may impact a client’s lifestyle.
  • Describe how to monitor a client following a prescribed treatment regime, including pharmacology, in order to obtain a quality patient outcome.
• Competency 4: Communicate in a manner that is scholarly, professional, and consistent with expectations of a nursing professional.
  • Write content clearly and logically with correct use of grammar, punctuation, and mechanics.
  • Correctly format citations and references using current APA style
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By having a thorough understanding of pharmacology, nurses can eliminate possible medication errors in their nursing practices. The basic principles of pharmacology include pharmacokinetics (what the body does to a drug) and pharmacodynamics (what a drug does to the body). Pharmacology plays a significant role in the nursing profession, so it is extremely important for nurses to understand the actions of the pharmacological agents they will administer to patients in order to intervene appropriately if necessary.

Another critical skill for a nurse is the ability to apply and evaluate evidence-based practices, principles, models, and pharmacological guidelines and protocols commonly used in nursing practice. Understanding how specific protocols and guidelines are developed will aid nurses in treating patients with a multitude of physiological and psychological conditions.

Nurses must be able to measure outcomes of pharmacological interventions when caring for patients. The effective use of evidence-based practice guidelines, models, and principles is one way that nurses can analyze quality outcomes for the pharmacological treatments used for patients.

Pharmacology includes different categories of major drugs used in the treatment of primary diseases. The same drug may be used to treat more than one disease or condition, while two patients with the same disease may require different drug treatments. In addition, the professional nurse must be aware of what types of things can influence a patient’s response to a drug. Some things are obvious—other medications, for example—while some are less so. Things like age, weight, herbs—even foods people eat every day—can influence how a person responds to a particular drug. At times, even a strong cultural belief can influence how a drug will react. Nurses who administer drugs have a responsibility to assess patients for both the desired response, as well as for any unwanted and potentially harmful reactions that may occur
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Imagine your supervisor has asked you to conduct a lunch and learn session to educate your fellow nursing staff on pharmacological interventions.

Preparation

Select a disease or health condition that requires pharmacological intervention. You may choose any disease or health condition you wish, but the disease or health condition must be relevant to nurses from a variety of settings (for example: ER, pediatrics, public health, et cetera).

Requirements

Once you have selected a disease or health condition, create a PowerPoint presentation you could use in your lunch and learn session, including the following:

• Identify the disease or health condition you have chosen, along with the areas where nurses are likely to see it. (Do this in the agenda slide or next slide after the agenda.)
• Identify the three drugs used most often in the treatment of the disease or health condition.
• Explain the types of actions, side effects, indications, and contraindications that could be expected from the pharmacological treatment.
• Describe the treatment regime most often prescribed for the disease or health condition. This should include pharmacology but not be limited to pharmacology.
• Explain how the treatment regime (including pharmacology) may impact a client’s lifestyle. Consider things such as finances, ease or complexity of administration, instructions (frequency, duration), et cetera.
• Describe how a nurse should monitor a client being treated for the disease or health condition in order to obtain a quality patient outcome.
• Explain any controversies associated with the drugs used in the treatment. For example, is there a black box warning with any of the drugs?

Use the notes section of each slide to expand your points or draft your mock oral presentation (or both) and reference your resources. Use at least 3 peer-reviewed or professional resources to support your work in this assessment. Be sure your PowerPoint includes a title slide, a slide with your agenda or list of topics to be covered, and a reference slide. Follow current APA style and formatting guidelines for your citations and references.

Additional Requirements

• Number of slides: 10–12, not including the title and reference slides.
• Be creative. Consider your intended audience.