Written assignmentCommunity health assessment

Hispanic schoolchildren DQ

The brief bans doing this from a browser and asks for photographs. Both instructions point the same way: the paper is graded on what you could only have seen in person.

Editorial process

Last reviewed · August 25, 2026

Written by

Maren Caldwell

MSN, RN, CNE

Medical-surgical nursing, pharmacology and NCLEX preparation

Reviewed by

Dr. Tessa Redmond

DNP, RN, CNE

Evidence-based practice and clinical education

On this page

Interpret the task
Assignment instructions
Deliverables
Proposed outline
Research plan
Reference shortlist
Final review

Write down what a browser could not have told you

The brief rules out doing this from a browser and then asks for photographs as evidence, which tells you what a strong paper contains: observations that only physical presence produces. Census data will give you income and age structure; it will not tell you that the only food shop within walking distance sells no fresh produce, that the bus shelter outside the clinic has no seating, that the pharmacy window advertises in one language while the neighbourhood speaks another, or that the park equipment is fenced off. Those are the findings that earn the assignment, and they come from noticing rather than from searching. Go with the survey table's categories in front of you so the walk is structured rather than impressionistic. Structure also makes the photographs purposeful rather than incidental, since each one should be evidence for a specific hypothesis you formed while standing there.

Keep the practicum population in view throughout, because the brief ties the survey to it explicitly and it changes what is worth photographing. If your problem is childhood obesity in a Hispanic community, the relevant observations are food retail, safe play space, the walking route to school, the languages on signage and the presence or absence of community organisations, and a survey that photographs housing stock in general has answered a different question. Then the social determinants section should connect what you saw to a named determinant rather than listing determinants abstractly, and the community strengths section deserves the same discipline, since an asset-based observation is exactly what a deficit-focused survey misses: a church hall that already runs an after-school programme is a resource your practicum could build on. Naming an existing asset is also more useful to a practicum than cataloguing another deficit. It is also the harder thing to notice on a single walk.

Likely learning objectives

Record observations that census data cannot supply.
Structure the walk with the survey instrument's categories.
Keep the practicum population in view when choosing what to observe.
Identify community assets alongside deficits.

Assignment instructions

Read the full question

Review every instruction before using the planning guidance that follows.

Conduct a “Windshield Survey” in a section of your community. Instructions for the survey can be found in Stanhope and Lancaster (2016) on page 416, Table 18-6. As you notice, conducting a Windshield Survey requires that you either walk around or drive around a particular section of the community and take notes about what you observe. A Windshield Survey cannot be conducted by reviewing websites or Google Earth only. It requires actually taking a look at the selected area of the community. This survey should be focused on the problem and population you have selected for your practicum project. If you choose, for example, obesity among Hispanic schoolchildren, you might want to locate a section of the community where many Hispanic children live, or you might want to conduct the Windshield Survey around where Hispanic children attend school. If Hispanic children are not found in a specific section of your community (e.g., Chinatown in San Francisco or Harlem in New York), then you may select the section of the community where you live or work but pay particular attention to your practicum population and practicum problem as you conduct a survey of the community as viewed through the eyes of the public health nurse. By Day 7 of Week 3 Submit a 3- to 4-page paper including: Introduction to the community, including the name of the community and any interesting or historical facts you would like to add about where you live Photographs of the selected area of the community that serve as evidence of your observations and hypotheses Windshield Survey findings, including a description of the section of your community that you chose to survey Description of the Vulnerable Population and Available Resources Demographics of the vulnerable population What social determinants create their vulnerable status? What community strengths exist to assist this population? Conclusions based on Nursing Assessment of the Community Based on what you have found, what conclusions can you draw about your community and your selected population for your practicum? Select at least 5 scholarly resources to support your assessment. Websites may be included but the paper must include scholarly resources in its development. For this Assignment, review the following: AWE Checklist (Level 4000) BSN Program Top Ten Citations and References

Course-wide instructions that accompany this question

You must proofread your paper. But do not strictly rely on your computer’s spell-checker and grammar-checker; failure to do so indicates a lack of effort on your part and you can expect your grade to suffer accordingly. Papers with numerous misspelled words and grammatical mistakes will be penalized. Read over your paper – in silence and then aloud – before handing it in and make corrections as necessary. Often it is advantageous to have a friend proofread your paper for obvious errors. Handwritten corrections are preferable to uncorrected mistakes. Use a standard 10 to 12 point (10 to 12 characters per inch) typeface. Smaller or compressed type and papers with small margins or single-spacing are hard to read. It is better to let your essay run over the recommended number of pages than to try to compress it into fewer pages. Likewise, large type, large margins, large indentations, triple-spacing, increased leading (space between lines), increased kerning (space between letters), and any other such attempts at “padding” to increase the length of a paper are unacceptable, wasteful of trees, and will not fool your professor. The paper must be neatly formatted, double-spaced with a one-inch margin on the top, bottom, and sides of each page. When submitting hard copy, be sure to use white paper and print out using dark ink. If it is hard to read your essay, it will also be hard to follow your argument

What the Week 3 paper requires

01A 3-4 page paper submitted by Day 7 of Week 3.
02An introduction to the community including its name and interesting or historical facts.
03Photographs of the selected area as evidence of observations and hypotheses.
04Windshield Survey findings describing the section surveyed.
05A description of the vulnerable population and available resources, including demographics.
06The social determinants creating their vulnerable status and the community strengths that assist them.
07Conclusions based on nursing assessment of the community, with at least 5 scholarly resources.