COMMUNITY ASSESSMENT AND ANALYSIS PRESENTATION NRS 428
COMMUNITY ASSESSMENT AND ANALYSIS PRESENTATION NRS 428
Community assessment is an important practice in nursing and healthcare. Nurses and other healthcare providers conduct community assessment and analysis to determine the actual needs, health status, and issues that community members face. Community assessment also aligns the adopted strategies in healthcare with the community needs. The results of community assessment guides the development of strategies to address the prioritized community needs. For example, nurses develop plans that address barriers to access to care in cases where community assessment shows the community members to experience extensive barriers in accessing the care that they need. Therefore, this presentation focuses on a community assessment and analysis performed on Leander Community, Texas. It identifies the socio-economic structure, barriers, challenges, and social determinants of health that community members experience in accessing the care that they need.
The selected community for assessment is Leander City. Leander City is located in Texas State , Travis County. The city is ranked 51st largest city in Texas state and 427th largest city in the United States of America. The estimate land mass of the city is 37.7 square miles and a population density of 2205.50 per square mile (Census.gov, 2022).
The majority of the population in Leander City comprise the whites with a percentage of 83.28%. Individuals of Hispanic or Latino background follows with 24.2%, African Americans (8.0%), and two or more races (6.4%). The population of Leander City as per Census of 2020 was 59202. The population represented a significant increase when compared to 26521 of 2010. The majority of the population comprises of females (51.3%). People aged under 5 years is 8.0%, 29.6% for those under 18 years and 8.5% for those aged above 65 years. There is a high rate of home ownership in the state. The estimated population of home ownership is 78.2% (Census.gov, 2022).
The financial analysis of Leander City shows that it has a high rate of employment. Accordingly, 73.2% of the population is civilian labor force with the percentage of women in civilian labor force being 65.8%. The total spending in the city is also high as evidenced by the fact that total retail sales in 2012 was $2469410000. The estimated household income of the city as per 2020 was $106108. The per capital income for the last one year in 2020 was $40373. The poverty rate in Leander city is low as evidenced by the fact that 4.3% of the population lives in poverty. The city also had 2603 business firms in 2012 with men-owned firms being 1226 while women-owned firms were 1080. The minority-owned firms were 660, 1836 for non-minority, 195 for veterans, and 2322 for non-veterans (Census.gov, 2022).
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The majority of the population in Leander City is educated. Accordingly, the statistics by US Census for 2020 shows that 92.8% of the population aged 25 years and above were high school graduates or higher in 2020. The statistics also shows that 41.0% of the population aged 25 years and above had bachelor’s degree and above in 2020. Leander City has excellent educational system and schools. The majority of the schools are district schools. The educational resources are adequate in the city. This can be seen from the statistics that the average student-teacher ratio for all the schools in the city is 1:13.83.
As noted initially, the majority of the population in Leander City comprises the Whites (77.0%). The proportion of other ethnicities is varied. For example, Black comprise 8.0%, American Indian 0.0%, Asian alone 4.7%, Native Hawaiian 0.1%, two or more races 6.4%, Hispanic 24.2%, and White alone, not Latino or Hispanic 59.1%. The citizenry of the city shows that 94.9% of the population are US citizens. This rate is higher than 93.4% of the national average. The population analysis shows that the leading population’s background are Mexico, India, and El Salvador. Therefore, the leading ethnicity of foreign born individuals in the city have Mexican origin followed by India and El Salvador (data.usa.io, n.d).
People in Leander City exhibit different types of social interactions. The first one is exchange interaction. Exchange interaction is a type of social interaction that stabilizes the social structure. The community members interact with the aim of gaining from their actions. They anticipate either tangible or intangible rewards from their interaction. Reciprocity guides their actions. Competition is a type of social interaction that contributes to social change. The community members oppose each other with the aim of achieving a specific goal. It forms the basis of social classes witness in Leander City. The other type of social interaction seen in the community is conflict interaction. Conflict interaction seeks to control others by force. Conflict interaction is evident through the mechanisms that the government implement stricter policies for the public health. An example can be seen in those implemented during the Covid19 pandemic. The last type of social interaction evident in the community is cooperation. Cooperation is a type of social interaction where community members work together with the aim of achieving a common goal.
The community assessment identified a number of barriers and challenges that people in Leander City experience in accessing the care that they need. One of them is limited appointment hours. Most hospitals in the region require that patients book appointments for their visits for physician assessment. However, the population faces the challenge of limited appointment slots and hours from their service providers. The limited appointment slots and hours is attributed to the shortage of physicians in the region. As a result, they incur significant costs travelling to other hospitals in the region to access the care that they need. The other barrier identified from the community assessment is financial barriers. Some of the community members cannot afford the high cost of healthcare services in the region. The high cost makes it hard for them to access the care they need. Factors such as low insurance coverage and unaffordability of premium insurance has made it hard for the majority of the population to access the care they need. The last barrier is lack of awareness. The assessment showed low level of awareness among the population on the available care services they can access in the region. As a result, healthcare utilization rate is low (Cromer et al., 2019).
The community assessment revealed several social determinants of health in Leander City. One of them is educational status. Educational status affect awareness about health needs and practices and utilization of healthcare services. Highly educated persons in the community were found to live healthier lives compared to those with low educational levels (Gottlieb et al., 2019). The other factor is employment status. Employment influences affordability and access to healthcare. The employed often afford their needed care due to them having medical insurance coverage that expand their access to healthcare. Income is another social determinant of health in the community. High income in the community translates into access to high quality care in the community. Individuals from low socioeconomic backgrounds were found to experience challenges in accessing their needed care due to cost barriers (Cromer et al., 2019). The other social determinant identified in the community is health insurance coverage. People with health insurance coverage accessed the care they needed with ease due to the elimination of cost barriers in healthcare.
The other social determinant identified from the community assessment is healthcare cost. The cost of healthcare in the USA is ranked among the highest in the globe’s developed countries. High cost of healthcare is barrier to most of the community members who are of low to middle socioeconomic status. The other social determinant of health identified from the community assessment is social support. Social support is important for mental health and wellbeing of the community members. The people of Leander City have adequate access to social support services for their health. As a result, it promotes their health and wellbeing. Neighborhood is another social determinant of health identified from the community assessment. Leander City is a moderately safe community. As a result, the population enjoys safe and secure environment that promotes their health (Gottlieb et al., 2019). The last social determinant of health identified from the assessment is health practices. The adoption of health practices such as healthy dietary routines and physical activity minimize the risk of health problems such as obesity and diabetes. Leander has moderate adoption of healthy practices, hence, health of the population.
The community assessment identified the existence of different partnerships in the community. The partnerships exist between community members, religious institutions, government, and non-governmental institutions. The institutions work with the community members to address prioritized issues affecting them. For example, the government supports community initiatives that aim at improving the health and wellbeing of the community. Religious institutions work with the community members to strengthen the existing social support systems. Different funding sources were also identified from they community assessment. They include out-of-pocket payment for healthcare services, government support and community sponsored programs that enhance access to healthcare.
The interview for the community analysis was done with a public health official of Leander City. The official has extensive experience with addressing the public health issues facing the people of Leander City. The interview examined several issues. One of them was the analysis of the overall health of the community. The interviewee provided insights into the overall health, health practices, values, and beliefs of Leander people. He also explored the issues that affect access to healthcare in the community. The interview also explored the crucial community health needs that should be addressed for the optimum health and wellbeing of the people of Leander. We explored the stakeholders that should be involved in addressing the identified healthcare issues in the community.
The interview with the public health official showed that the community is moderately healthy. The community members practice positive health behaviors such as the utilization of screening services and early treatment for health problems. The official also noted that the community has a moderate access to healthcare. The moderate access could be seen from the high utilization of the healthcare services by the population. The interview identified some barriers to healthcare in the region. They included cost, provider shortage, and low awareness among the population about the existing health promotion services they can utilize to achieve their health needs. The official was keen to note that a focus should be on addressing the social determinants of health in the region. The focus will reduce significantly the challenges that the community members experience in achieving their health needs (Shukla et al., 2020).
REFERENCES
Al Shamsi, H., Almutairi, A. G., Al Mashrafi, S., & Al Kalbani, T. (2020). Implications of Language Barriers for Healthcare: A Systematic Review. Oman Medical Journal, 35(2), e122. https://doi.org/10.5001/omj.2020.40
Census.gov. (2022). U.S. Census Bureau QuickFacts: Leander city, Texas. https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/leandercitytexas
Cromer, K. J., Wofford, L., & Wyant, D. K. (2019). Barriers to Healthcare Access Facing American Indian and Alaska Natives in Rural America. Journal of Community Health Nursing, 36(4), 165–187. https://doi.org/10.1080/07370016.2019.1665320
data.usa.io. (n.d.). Leander, TX | Data USA. Retrieved April 20, 2022, from https://datausa.io/profile/geo/leander-tx
Gottlieb, L., Fichtenberg, C., Alderwick, H., & Adler, N. (2019). Social Determinants of Health: What’s a Healthcare System to Do? Journal of Healthcare Management, 64(4), 243–257. https://doi.org/10.1097/JHM-D-18-00160
Shukla, N., Pradhan, B., Dikshit, A., Chakraborty, S., & Alamri, A. M. (2020). A Review of Models Used for Investigating Barriers to Healthcare Access in Australia. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 17(11), 4087. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17114087