Instructions
This assignment is to orient the students to the community used for the community health nursing clinical.
The assessment is to be completed in groups and may require time other than the assigned clinical day for completion. Be prepared to present your findings, orally, in seminar. Date and time of presentation will be scheduled. The following guideline is to focus your assessment.
- On your way to the designated community:
- Did you go through different small communities? How did they differ?
- Could you identify boundaries for different communities? (i.e., were there obvious separations between communities?)
- What sights, smells, sounds, etc., were identified with the different communities?
- After arrival in the designated community:
- What evidences of a minority culture do you see? How does this affect the environment? (Are there advertising billboards, graffiti, etc., that reflect ethnic characteristics of community?)
- Who do you see on the streets: elderly, young males, children, and women? (Indications of unemployment, constituencies, etc.)
- What industries are represented in the community?
- What would it be like to live in the community?
- Is public transportation available?
- How far to supermarkets and shopping centers?
- What type of housing?
- Where are “For Sale” signs?
- Do you think people rent or own the housing?
- What is the social-economic status of this community?
- What recreational facilities are there in the area?
- What kind of churches do you see in this area?
- What potential environmental hazards did you identify?
- What are the medical care facilities in this area? Doctors’ offices? Any evidence that physicians reflect the ethnic background of the population? How accessible are the medical facilities?
- Visit a community center, Senior Citizens Center, Chamber of Commerce. Find out what they do. Can they give you further information about this community? What other community resources are available in the area?
- Interview adults on the street or elsewhere:
- What is it like living in your community?
- What are this community’s strengths? Weaknesses?
- How is employment for people these days?
- Do they have a family doctor? How accessible is the doctor?
- What is the greatest health problem in this area?
- What seems to be the gossip center or the informal communication network of this community?
- Develop some key questions of your own.
- Stop at a small store and price the following: eggs, milk, meat, sugar, fruits and vegetables. What special needs does the small store meet? Go to the nearest supermarket and price the same items. Observe the customers in the stores . . . do they help you speculate about the composition of the area (i.e., ethnic group, age economic status, occupation?) Are any folk medicines for sale in the small store?
- Other evidence of Compare prices at the same two stores for baby items as follows: Newborn diapers (3 brands), concentrate formula for 36 oz., powdered formula for 36 oz., ready to feed formula for 36 oz.
- What would it be like to be elderly or homeless in this community? What resources are available to meet their needs
- What would it be like to be a young single teenage mother in this community?
- What resources are available for them?
- Try to find out what the power structure is in the community.
- Interview someone in a community organization, i.e., principal of a school, pastor of a church, a person in a service club, etc., to ascertain who is influential in the community and how they are influential?
- Interview adults on the street to find out who is considered to be influential in the community and why. Any names that appear twice are probably influential.
- Identify potential public health problems/high risk groups. What solutions do you recommend?
- Discuss potential need for community education.
- Identify potential target groups to teach.