NURS-FPX 6218 Leading the Future of Health Care
Community Healthcare Needs Assessment
This executive summary analyzes community health needs in Jordan, located in Minnesota. By conducting a virtual windshield survey, we explored different areas of this small town in Minnesota, including general conditions, public health needs, and environmental analysis. This executive summary will provide a concise and structured analysis of the community health state in Jordan and the health needs that require further attention for the well-being of community health.
General Condition and Public Health Needs
The virtual windshield tool identified various aspects of the City of Jordan, encompassing educational systems, libraries, health services, recreation centers, churches as sanctuary places, parks, residential areas, shopping plazas, and grocery stores. This showed that the city of Jordan was projected to thrive every day as it significantly supported education within the community by developing elementary and high schools. Moreover, the presence of St. Francis Health Services, merely a ten-minute drive away, in coordination with two of the most extensive health services, Fairview Hospital, and Clinics, being fifteen minutes away, covers the health needs of Jordan’s whole population while fulfilling safety concerns.
Middle and high schools for growing kids were also seen in the City of Jordan, along with a library open to all students and citizens. Furthermore, the facilities of fire departments and police departments ensure that the population is effectively protected from any disastrous event that questions their security and safety. The city is beautified with recreational parks, lagoons, tourist areas, and shopping centers. As the town grows steadily, there is a continuous demand for more educational, healthcare, and public utility systems due to prospective population growth, as city staff expect. Due to the enhanced access to restaurants and dine-in areas, public health was vulnerable to various diseases such as obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular problems.
The limitations of this survey included inadequate resources to conduct a thorough windshield analysis, time constraints, and the reluctance of community members to communicate openly due to safety concerns. Therefore, it requires further research through ancillary data to identify the critical aspects of health needs and available facilities to promote sustainable and continuous improvement in the community by planning its infrastructure, adequate resource allocation, and facilitating expanded services.
Environmental Analysis
Social Determinants of Health
Environmental factors, such as population, educational facilities, healthcare facilities, recreational facilities, and parks, impact population health, and the community’s overall well-being. In the case of Jordan, our windshield analysis revealed that Jordan was a small town with 7,000 native people, and its expanded growth was expected to rise by 150 individuals annually. Moreover, the City of Jordan had a robust educational system that the natives of Jordan could easily access and improve their knowledge of health and wellness through adequate education right from the beginning. With a prosperous educational system in the City of Jordan, health literacy among the community members is enhanced as almost 70% of ISD #717 graduates seek post-secondary education. This will result in better health of the overall community as the educated community population will adhere to healthy behaviors and habits (Nutbeam & Lloyd, 2020).
Moreover, adequate access to various healthcare organizations also affects population health and increases life expectancy (Hao et al., 2020). Considering the existence of renowned hospitals in Jordan that are ten to fifteen minutes away ensures that health needs are timely and appropriately addressed and population health is improved. The prospective opportunities lie in enhancing Jordan’s infrastructure by utilizing 30 acres of available industrial park space. This can be used up to satisfy the community’s health needs for adequate delivery of health services and education (City of Jordan, Minnesota, 2015). Health-promoting environments such as parks and gyms, as social determinants of health, promote healthy habits through regular physical activity in the community population of Jordan (Wang et al., 2021).
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