NURS FPX 4020 Assessment 1 Essay

NURS FPX 4020 Assessment 1 Essay

NURS FPX 4020 Assessment 1 Essay

Health Assessment

Introduction

A health assessment is a detailed screening process undertaken by a qualified medic or rather a public health nurse. The healthiness of an individual is determined by carrying out multiple tests and checkups. The assessments conducted may involve lifestyle evaluation and physical examination of the patient. A practical advice may also be given to enables one to adopt healthy living. Community health assessment, on the other hand, is a process that describes the nature of health concerns of people in a given locality. It helps in the identification of the fundamental risk factors as well as causes of the disease. Community health assessment enhances the identification of the responses needed to solve the identified problems (Suter II, 2016). This assessment is not an event but a necessary developmental process that is continuously improved to suit the demands of the time.

Levels of Health Assessment

Community

Profiling is the first key component of a health assessment exercise at the community level. This involves the collection of applicable information that will guide the nurse regarding the nature of health demands of the population. The information gathered is analyzed to identify the underlying health concerns. The second component of community health assessment involves the analysis of the current health status of the society. Some of the criteria commonly applied to identify the healthiness of a community include mortality data, morbidity data, and behavioral measures.

Group

When dealing with a group, the key elements of health assessment process should focus on the identification of the shared characteristics and the potential causes of the probable health concerns. Understanding the shared features such as gender and economic status is crucial in the assessment process. Similarly, identifying the specific causes of health challenges is a huge step towards the right direction. This step is essential as it enables the caregivers to identify the most pressing health issues for appropriate action. Sustainable health assessment is only tenable if the available resources are allocated to where they are needed most.

Individual

The history and the unique characteristics of the patient are some of the key components of a health assessment procedure. With this information, the assessors can easily determine the nature of the situation they are dealing with (Giger, 2016). Moreover, screening enable nurses to determine whether a particular complaint has a chance of making significant health impacts.

The Process of Completing a Comprehensive Health Assessment

A detailed health assessment calls for an examination of both the social and behavioral impacts, information needs of the care givers and patients, health concerns and risks. The patients’ medical data enables the student group to get this relevant information (McKenzie et al., 2016). Also conducting interviews with the patient and caregivers can bring out the much-needed information. The assessment as a matter of caution should comprise of as many elements as possible. This is why this type of health assessment is called a comprehensive evaluation. The key features include the immunization status and screenings that are based on the patient’s particular age. Additionally, a comprehensive health assessment encompasses an evaluation of both the social and cultural needs of the patients and the strengths and limitations therein.

Findings of the Health Assessment

After a careful evaluation of different regions and community groupings, we decided to settle for a nearby rural town as our selected study population. The available statistics from recent census indicates that the region has a population of about 5000 people. A significant number of these individuals are middle-income earners. Relatively, the poverty level is high with more than 30% of the residents living below the poverty line. The vast majority of the locals are native English speakers at 70% while Spanish constitute 20 percent of the population. The remaining 10% of the residents are mainly Chinese speakers. In terms of age groups, this rural town is mainly occupied by the older generation with more than 50% of the residents aged above 50 years. People aged between 20 and 50 years constitute 32% of the total population while those below 20 years make up for the remaining 18% or thereabouts.

From the above statistics, it is evident that the vast majority of the residents in the town are senior citizens. This explains the nature of our health assessment’s findings which show that the prevalence for chronic ailments such as heart disease and cancer is considerably high compared to the national average. Besides the common predisposing factors like age, the older generation in this community has not embraced healthy lifestyle. Most of the senior citizens are not very active which increases the risk of lifestyle-related disorders. Moreover, the assessment proved the need to conduct a health maintenance campaign among the elderly. We sought to involve the available community leaders to ensure that the target group embraces this crucial exercise.

Conclusion

Health assessment is a comprehensive process that calls for serious attention and support. Identifying the different health aspects of the population at the community, group and individual levels is the first step towards the right direction. Adhering to the right procedure makes it easy for the health assessment exercise to give reliable statistics regarding the study population.

References

Giger, J. N. (2016). Transcultural nursing-e-book: Assessment and intervention. ‎Maryland Heights: Mosby

McKenzie, J. F., Neiger, B. L., & Thackeray, R. (2016). Planning, implementing & evaluating health promotion programs: A primer. London: Pearson Education.

Suter II, G. W. (2016). Ecological risk assessment. Boca Raton: CRC press.