Windshield Survey (WSS). Community Health Nurse (CHN)

Oftentimes, a Community Health Nurse (CHN) will complete a Windshield Survey (WSS) as a precursor to a formal community assessment.
The CHN uses a WSS in the course of a regular working day, particularly if the CHN has been assigned to new individual and family clients in a previously unfamiliar area. According to your text, Windshield Surveys are the “motorized equivalent of simple observation,” and involve the gathering of data that helps define the community, the trends, stability and changes that may signify the overall health of the community (Stanhope and Lancaster, 2020).
The WSS gives the CHN a glance of what the community looks like and how the community lives. Ideally, Stanhope and Lancaster recommend the WSS to be done at various times of the day so that the entire “life” of the community may be observed. As you will learn from the lecture, a community is a type of living being, in that it has traits, history, strengths, weaknesses, and vulnerable people existing in it. The CHN can apply the nursing process to the community (client) as well as the populations who live in that community. The WSS will evolve as the semester goes along. This is not a project that should be done early and fast! Take time with it! Learn your community!
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Guidelines & Instructions
• Utilize the Community Assessment Framework document to guide what constitutes valuable information to gather. Use Table 17.5 on page 383 of the textbook as your primary guide to follow, to include key assessment content, especially regarding place.
• Look for characteristics that you feel define the client/community and the life surrounding it. Pay particular attention to the immediate
surroundings of your clinical site. Valuable information about the needs of the community can be assessed just by looking at the individuals in it!
• Talk with your clinical placement preceptor to gain valuable insight into problems faced by the community and its population, specifically about the population the agency serves. An important component of the assessment is the impact of the community’s strengths and weaknesses upon individuals and families!
• With the information gathered, type a 6-8 page document (APA format) that describes or tells a picture of your community. Include such data as where your clinical site is located in the community, a description, in general terms, of its population and the types of services the population receives.
• Define some health indicators, strengths and weaknesses of the community. This information is part of your nursing assessment
• Develop a working conclusion about the state of health in this community. Define particular problems you are seeing.
• Discuss ways a CHN might address those problems using Core Functions & Levels of Prevention
• Identify who the partners could be in addressing those problems, such as nearby health centers, hospitals, or faith-based institutions.
• Include professional references that strengthen your conclusions or reporting (APA style).
Remember that the Windshield Survey primarily assesses the community in which your clinical site is located, or the community that is served by your clinical site. The Windshield Survey does not focus on your clinical site itself. Although you will include content on your clinical site, its mission, and how the agency serves the community population, the Windshield Survey is designed to analyze the community that your community clinical/agency serves.
DUE DATE IS: 4 weeks from when you receive email notification of your clinical site. Your Clinical Supervisor will confirm with you the due date