Windshield Survey of the Community

Course Objectives: 1,3 & 5

Instructions
Assessment of the community is one of the three core functions of community health nursing. The windshield survey is one the early steps in the assessment of a community that uses primary and secondary data. It could be equivocated to the “head to toe” assessment of the community. You will drive through your community (city) that you will be using for your proposed project.  Try to look at your city through the eyes of a new member of the community. Use the guidelines below as you do your windshield survey.

• You will provide primary data through observation while driving through the community and secondary data from resources. Note when secondary data is used, it must be cited and referenced as per APA
• This will be completed as a word document and submitted under the appropriate assignment tab
• Paper should include a title page that includes all the students’ names, city, county, and state of the community surveyed, and the date of survey
• Include a reference page and in-text citations when obtaining secondary data.  If able try to find the community (city or town data, but if that is unavailable use the county data)
• This assignment should be written in paragraph form with each section labeled.
• Refer to Chapter 17 of the textbook for further clarification

 Community “Place” and “People”

• Place
  • Boundaries
  • Population today and sometime in the last 20 years to note if the community is growing, decreasing, or remaining stagnant in their population size
• Last Community Needs Assessment
  • Locate the Community Needs Assessment from either the local hospital and or the county health department.  Identify the top 3-needs identified

 Community Systems in Place

• Safety and transportation
  • Public transportation (if available state the average cost, are the bus stops easily accessible and accessible
  • Condition of the streets as good, fair, or poor, and state your rationale
  • Sidewalks
    • General condition or missing
    • Handicapped accessibility
  • Crime rate (find the data for this and cite and reference this)
• Economics

• Average income of the area (cite your reference)
• Industries in the area 
• Government
  • Government offices buildings and condition
  • Look at the web site for the community and relate how the community is described
• Education
  • Presence of schools, number of schools, types of schools, and the condition of the buildings and the grounds
  • High school graduation rates (cite your reference)
• Recreation
  • Opportunities for recreation present in the community
• Health and Social Services
  • Health care facilities in the area such as hospital, primary care offices, extended care, dentist, etc.
• Physical environment
  • The built environment
    • Types of housing (single family, multiply family)
    • Condition of houses
    • Average cost of renting in the community
    • Average cost of buying of buying a home in the community
    • Air and water quality

  Community Evaluation and pictures 

• Identify one key informant from your community and ask them the following questions. Note this can be done in person, per phone or per email.  Refer to page 378 blue box on how to identify a key informant. Do not need the individuals name, just a statement about who they are
  • What do you see as a positive feature of this community and why?
  • What do you see as a issue that needs improvement for this community and why?
• From the windshield survey summarize your overall impression of the community
  • Positives of the community
  • Needs improvements of the community
• Upload 4 pictures taken from your windshield survey
  • Under each picture describe the significance of the picture in understanding this community
  • Note the date and time the picture was taken
  • Do not take/upload pictures with community members present in them

Mechanics of the paper

• Cover page
• Paragraph format
• Citations within the body of the paper done correctly
• Reference page per APA format
• All members participated