Community Project Assignment

INTRODUCTION
The CLINICAL portion of this course involves three elements:

a) CLINICAL OBSERVATIONS/EXPERIENCE hours,

b) attendance at one PUBLIC MEETING where any area of Public Health is on the agenda with a preference on policy development, and

c) a COMMUNITY PROJECT (with real engagement or a fictitious proposal) for a TOTAL of approximately 30 hours. To assure your clinical experiences are appropriate and meet course objectives, you need faculty prior approval.
For the population’s health, it is critical that all RNs understand and appreciate realistic, high-quality public health and population-focused practice and the nursing process associated with it. Moreover, for the nation/global health, it is critical that many RNs consider the path and the processes of Public Health Nursing as one option on their career trajectory.

BROAD GOALS for the COMMUNITY PROJECT

The Community Project allows students to assess and to analyze a community health issue relevant to their local or greater regional area. In the Project, the student synthesizes learning N. 348L theory to address a community health issue incorporating the steps of the nursing process unique for Public Health Nursing.
There is an array of experiences for PH nursing students in our N. 348L online course. With that, any number of possibilities may present for the framework of this Project:

1. The Project may support a real-time intervention happening in the clinical Agency or associated with that Agency.

2. The student Project assignment may support intervention in an outside venue where clinical observations happen or a subject of special interest to the student associated with their home community.

3. Finally, if the student has no plausible connection to support a real-time intervention (with the county agency or on the outside), the Project becomes a fictitious learning activity and a Community Project Proposal.

In the proposal, students still ground the Project in assessment findings and from the best of literature, evaluating the possible or probable outcomes.

START DATES and DUE DATE

The start of this Project will be very individual. Some students are aligned to PH agencies that want support from students early in term. Some students will be thinking about their Project idea to do independently or with a team of students from their same county. If you work with as a group or team, please include all the names of the members on the title slide. Also, please include an authorship statement for the faculty when you post the assignment in the assignment folder; all students included in the group will receive the same grade unless unique circumstances are discussed with faculty prior to the assignment of the grade. You will post this in the “Assignments” area for faculty to provide feedback and a grade. You will also post this to the discussion area as your final discussion to receive student feedback (see course schedule for specific due date). The final due date is near the end of term, as listed on Planned Schedule for this course.

PROJECT GUIDELINES and FINAL ELEMENTS (note it is typical for students to create this assignment using a PowerPoint format.)

This is not a scholarly paper!!!!! If you are interested in trying a different format other than PowerPoint, please discuss it with the faculty prior to completing the assignment.

1. ASSESSMENT (20 points).

a) Use your resources, text, and module studies to describe the assessment of your identified population for this project.

b) Define and describe the aggregate, the focused group from the community you are working with (or propose to work with, if fictitious). This group can easily come from the Module 02 Windshield Survey and more. In describing, use the Determinants of Health

• Describe the group as fully as possible (i.e., 40 first graders ages 6-7, 51% are female, 49% male. Seek to add more; aim for 4-5 assessment elements (e.g., age, economic, educational, social status, etc.)

• Summarize the biology and behavior: what stage of development they are in; what you have observed of the group

• Describe the social environment

• Describe the physical environment c) Primary Source – Key Informant(s)

• In real-time Projects, each student needs to interview one individual from the identified aggregate about the issue.

• In fictitious proposals, students describe the importance of the Key Informant and how you would select one for 1/2020/cr the project.

d) Collaboration and Partnerships

These are integral to the whole assessment process.

• Each student needs to identify by name and have a professional partner that knows (or would know, if doing a fictitious Proposal) the identified population group and works with them: a school health nurse, a public health nurse, a social worker, a teacher. Describe why you have selected the person/people you are collaborating/partnering with and how they are an appropriate choice for your project.

e) Review of Literature – Secondary Sources

• To support assessment awareness on this topic, incorporate secondary sources: readings/awareness from journals, online resources (community or state profiles of health), research reports that are published, websites like Healthy People 2020, Centers for Disease Control, etc. f) Describe the Assets of the Population.

• For instance, if you are assessing Kindergarteners you would consider families as assets, the PTA at the school, the availability of extra services, the school board etc.

1. ANALYSIS & PRIORITIZATION OF HEALTH STATUS (5 points) (Refer to course Module 02 for added supports). a) Present and summarize the data in a list of 2-3 actual or potential issues; include strengths and community resources (relates to Assets). b) (Develop) and identify one community diagnosis that leads the plan.
2. PLANNING & IMPLEMENTATION (10 points): a) Communicate at least TWO goals for an intervention to support this identified need (4 pts). • The outcome statement for the intervention should meet criteria that include who by when will do what. (e.g., “By November 15, 2014, 100% of pregnant adolescents in the XXX school district will be involved in an education program about the effects of alcohol use during pregnancy.”) • See: SMART and Meaningful Objectives b) Identify the level (or levels) of prevention that your intervention is (or could) address. (2 pts) c) Then, envision the action plan to address this community/aggregate need. (2 pts) d) When considering the action plan/intervention, use at least two (2) of the interventions described in the classic MN Public Health Interventions Wheel. (2 pts)
3. EVALUATION (10 points) a) The final step is to track progress and evaluate movement towards goals established. b) Identify at least ONE outcome evaluation measure you used (or would use) and its corresponding limitations. c) For example,consider: • Access: did/will the team actually find the high-risk identified population? Did the team offer services regardless of age, ethnicity, gender, location, social status? (Or, if this is a fictitious proposal, HOW will you or the team know?) • Quality: did/will the services meet the greatest unmet needs for the identified population? Were they satisfied? Did they grow? (Or, if this is a fictitious proposal, HOW will the team know?) • Cost: if there was a budget, was it managed well? In end, are costs of care reduced compared to if no intervention? • Equity: Did the team use resources to meet the priority health needs of the most numbers of people? d) OR, pretests/posttests, return demonstrations, screenings, self-reports, etc. are commonly used evaluation methods. • Just keep in mind long-term outcomes differ from short-term results, so designate short term/long term benefits/outcomes. e) Finally, include YOUR SUMMARY. Add specific evaluation comments about your growth in how the project went.
4. Final presentation (5 points) a) APA style rules apply. b) Use of graphics, maps or pictures is encouraged though remember to properly cite them per APA style. c) Correct grammar/spelling is expected. d) Minimum of one slide per individual section/content area (please avoid over-crowding slides with content). e) You must use voice narrative and/or slide notes to enhance the slide content and fully explain the project. Use of one or the other is required. You may use both. f) The title of this power point is: Community Project: XXX (insert the population group you assessed). • Remember that the LAST slide(s) is the Reference slide(s). Include a minimum of four references less than five years old.