Community Nursing Windshield Survey Essay

Community Nursing Windshield Survey

There are many changes that I have observed in my neighborhood since living here for 21 years. There has been a recent migration of homeowners moving out of the neighborhoods. The home owners are either renting out their homes, to a new influx of section 8 tenants or they have chosen to walk away from their homes leaving many in the area to go into foreclosure. Foreclosure and crime are two of the biggest element of change that I have noticed in my neighborhood, and many of these problems arise from the economy, health and illness, and familial structure breakdown.

This has caused a change in the way the homes in the area appear. Currently, many of the homes have lost their curb appeal. At one time this neighborhood had beautiful maintained lawns, many of the homes had fresh paint or siding applied, and during spring or income tax time you could count on watching many neighbors being in their yards spring cleaning and fixing up. There was a time when the community had tool borrowing, if you needed a tool to maintain something in your home, the resource was city hall.

Just leave your driver’s license and you could borrow it for 24 hours. Apparently those days are gone. When I drive through my community I don’t notice many of the changes because I am focused on whatever mission Aim on, but when I am driving looking for things it became more interesting to notice kids on the street during school hours, people on the street; whom appear to have nothing to do. This brings me to my nursing diagnosis for this community.

In the beginning I thought that this may be a hard project, but I have since begun to see the community from a different perspective. My first diagnosis for the community is; Ineffective coping, related to increase of poverty/lack of education secondary to loss of jobs and inability to pay for food and housing. Interventions: Find ways for the community to get together and learn how to deal with their problems and make change for each individual for the betterment of the whole community, have meetings at the local library.

Find ways for them to first be able to verbalize their feelings, make sure they understand what is happening, and find out their perceptions and fears. Address their education limitations/fears. Provide resources like GED programs, provide community fairs for local trade schools or community colleges to be present and counsel them to in the direction to fill out forms like applications and false. My second nursing diagnosis was also connected to my family that I am assessing for this class, they happen to live in the neighborhood also.

One family is a part of many that make of the community. Alteration in family coping related to lack of emotional support/family support while family member is going through a stressful time. Interventions; counsel them and have them set aside one day a week to interact together by going to some of the community family night outings at the churches in the area, also seek counseling through local clergy or support groups like emotions anonymous to help them express their perceptions of what is happening to their family.

The last diagnosis I chose was, ineffective community coping related to deficits in social support services and resources as evidenced by deficits of community resource, community participations and community does not meet its own expectation, community powerlessness. Interventions- Evaluate the community, have activities to get them involved to find out what their needs are, how they feel and offer them resources to get help. Second intervention-encourage community members and groups to become involved in problem solving activities.

Since visually you can sense what some of their needs are have companies present that may offer them solutions. Debt counseling services, mortgage loan representatives, school counselors, Red Cross services, Catholic Charities, Neighborhood service centers, children and family services, city council members and the mayor. The difficulty that I faced in this project is separating myself from what I viewed as the norm in my neighborhood, and incorporating my education, diversity teachings and cultural competence as well as new title as the nurse of the community even though I am a part of this community.

I must also take this experience and be able to apply it to any neighborhood representing any ethnicity or culture. The Office of Minority Health states that cultural ‘Competence’ implies having the capacity to function effectively as an individual and an organization within the context of the cultural beliefs, behaviors, and needs presented by consumers and their communities. Campinha-Bacote (2003b) brought insight to the problem of defining culture when she stated, “Cultural values give an individual a sense of direction as well as meaning to life.

She further states “that addressing cultural diversity goes beyond knowing the values, beliefs, practices, and customs of diverse groups, other faces of cultural diversity include “religious affiliations, language, physical size, gender, sexual orientation, age, disability (both physical and mental), political orientation, socio-economic status, occupational status and geographical location”.

According to US Dept of Health and Human Services, in an online Cultural Diversity CEU, culturally competent service providers must take into account the full range of factors that influence how any one individual service recipient behaves and communicates, and further indicated that the two levels of influencing factors are: overall cultural differences between racial and ethnic groups, as well as individual-level differences (based on age, education, literacy, income, gender and geographic location).

ALSO READ: Windshield Survey Custom Essay