This document provides an overview of community health assessment. It defines key terms like community, needs assessment, and types of assessment including familiarization, problem-oriented, comprehensive, and assets-based. Methods of assessment are described such as surveys, epidemiological studies, forums, and focus groups. The community health assessment process involves data collection, interpretation, diagnosis, planning, implementation, and evaluation. Finally, characteristics of a healthy community are outlined.

1. Community Assessment
L. C. KUMBANI, PhD, RNM
10th November, 2021

2. Learning outcomes
• Identify 10 Steps in the Community Health
Assessment development process,
• Explain the 10 steps of Community health
assessment.
• Define Community needs assessment.
• Explain types of community assessment.
• Identify the sources of information about a
community’s health.

3. Definition of a “Community”
• A cluster of people with at least one common
characteristic (geographic location,
occupation, ethnicity, housing condition……)
• A group of people with a common
characteristic or interest living together within
a larger society

4. Needs Assessment
 Need?
 Need is difference between what someone
wants and what exists.
 A value judgment that some group has a
problem that can (should) be addressed.

5. Assessment
 Assessment is the key initial step of the
midwifery process. Assessment for midwives
means collecting & evaluating information
about a community's health status to discover
existing or potential needs & assets as a basis
for planning future action (Anderson & McFarlane,
2010 in Allender, et al. 2014.)
 Assessment involves two major activities:
- collection of pertinent data &
- analysis and interpretation of data.

6. Community needs assessment (1)
 Evaluating the health status of the community.
 Determining what the community’s health
needs are.
 Identifying places where those needs are not
being met.

7.  Systematically collecting, analyzing & making
available information about the health status
of the community.
Community needs assessment (2)

8. Community needs assessment (3)
 The process of determining the real or
perceived needs of a defined community.
 The type of assessment depends on variables
such as the needs that exist, the goals to be
achieved, and the resources available for
carrying out the study.

9. Types of Community Needs
Assessment

10. Familiarization/ "Windshield Survey" (1)
 Familiarization assessment involves studying
data already available on a community, and
gathering a certain amount of firsthand data,
to gain a working knowledge of the
community.
 Such an approach, sometimes called
“windshield survey” is used by new staff
members in community health agencies.

11.  Nurses drive (or walk) around the community;
find health, social, and governmental services;
obtain literature; introduce themselves and
explain that they are working in the area; and
generally become familiar with the
community.
 This type of assessment is needed whenever
the community health nurse works with
families, groups, organizations, or populations.
Familiarization /"Windshield Survey" (2)

12. Problem-Oriented Assessment (1)
 Begins with a single problem and assesses the
community in terms of that problem.
 The problem-oriented assessment is
commonly used when familiarization is not
sufficient and a comprehensive assessment is
too expensive.

13.  It is responsive to a particular need. The data
collected will be useful in planning for a
community response to that problem.
Problem-Oriented Assessment (2)

14. Community Subsystem Assessment (1)
 The community health nurse focuses on a
single dimension of community life.
 For example, the nurse might decide to survey
the religious organizations to discover their
roles in the community.
 Community subsystem assessment can be a
useful way for a team to conduct a more
thorough community assessment.

15.  If five members of a health team divide up the
ten systems in the community & each person
does an assessment of two systems.
 They then share their findings to create a
more comprehensive picture of the
community and its needs.
Community Subsystem Assessment (2)

16. Comprehensive Assessment (1)
 Seeks to discover all relevant community
health information. A survey compiles all the
demographic information on the population,
such as its size, density, and composition.
 Key informants are interviewed in every
major system - education, health, religious,
economic, and others.

17.  Then, more detailed surveys and intensive
interviews are performed to yield information
on organizations and the various roles in each
organization.
 A comprehensive assessment describes the
systems of a community & also how power is
distributed throughout the system, how
decisions are made, and how change occurs
(Anderson & McFarlane, 2010; LeBan, 2011 in
Allender, et al. 2014.)
Comprehensive Assessment (2)

18.  Because comprehensive assessment is an
expensive, time-consuming process, it is
seldom performed.
 Performing a more focused study based on
prior knowledge of needs is often a better
strategy & less costly.
Comprehensive Assessment (3)

19. Community Assets Assessment (1)
 Focuses on the strengths and capacities of a
community rather than its problems.
 The previously mentioned methods are needs
oriented and deficit based – in other words,
they are "pathology" models, in which the
assessment is performed in response to
needs, barriers, weaknesses, problems, or
scarcity in the community.

20.  This may result in a fragmented approach to
solutions for the community's problems rather
than an approach focused on the community's
possibilities, strengths, and assets.
 This approach requires that the assessor look
for the positive, or see the glass as "half full".
Community Assets Assessment (2)

21. 1. Surveys
2. Descriptive epidemiologic studies.
3. Community forums or town meetings.
4. Focus groups.
Community Assessment Methods

22. 1. Survey
 An assessment method in which a series of
questions are used to collect data for analysis
of a specific group or area.

23. 1.1 Planning Phase
 Select survey method or instrument to be
used (eg, interviews, telephone calls,
questionnaires).
 Determine sampling size (eg, a percentage
of the total population in question).

24. 1.2 Data Collection Phase.
1.3 Data Analysis and Presentation
Phase
 Report results, including implications,
recommendations.

25. 2. Descriptive Epidemiologic
Studies:
 Descriptive epidemiologic study, examines the
amount and distribution of a disease or health
condition in a population by:
• person (who is affected?),
• place (where does the condition occur?), &
• time (when do the cases occur?).

26. 3. Community Forums or Town Hall
Meetings (1)
 The community or town hall meetings is a
qualitative assessment methods designed to
obtain community opinions.
 It takes place in the neighborhood of the
people involved, perhaps in a school
gymnasium or an auditorium.

27.  This method is used to elicit public opinion on
a variety of issues, including health care
concerns, political views, and feelings about
issues in the public eye.
3. Community Forums or Town Hall
Meetings (2)

28. 4. Focus Groups (1)
 Designed to obtain grassroots opinions similar to
the community forum or town hall meeting.
 Has some differences:
• there is only a small groups of participants,
usually 5 to 15 people.
• the members chosen for the group are
homogeneous with respect to specific
demographic variables.
- female community health nurses, pregnant
adolescents, or young mothers.

29.  Usually the group meets for 1 to 3 hours, and
there be a series of meetings.
4. Focus Groups (2)

30. Sources of Community Data
 There are many places the community health
midwives can look for data to enhance and
complete a community assessment.
 Data sources can be primary or secondary,
and they can be from international, national,
or local sources.

31. Community Health Assessment Process
(1)
• Assessment
– Data collection
– Data interpretation
• Community Diagnosis
– Diagnoses about community’s ineffective
coping ability & potential for enhanced coping.
– Portray a community focus.
– Include community response.
– Identify any related factors with potential for

32. Community Health Assessment Process
(2)
• Planning to meet the health needs
– An orderly, detailed series of actions for
specific goals & objectives.
– Setting priorities
– Establish goals & objectives
• Implementation
– Collaborate with the community
• Evaluate implemented plan

33. What is a Healthy Community? (1)
The following descriptors can serve as a guide
for assessing a healthy community. The
healthy community:
1. Is one in which members have a high degree
of awareness that "we are a community".
2. Uses natural resources wisely while taking
steps to conserve them for future
generations.

34. 3. Openly recognizes the existence of subgroups
and welcomes their participation in
community affairs.
4. Is prepared to meet crises.
5. Is a problem-solving community; it identifies,
analyzes, and organizes to meet its own
needs.
6. Seeks to make each of its systems' resources
available to all members of the community.
What is a Healthy Community? (2)

35. 7. Has open channels of communication that
allow information to flow among all
subgroups of citizens in all directions.
8. Has legitimate and effective ways to settle
disputes that arise within the community.
9. Encourages maximum citizen participation in
decision-making
10.Promotes a high level of wellness among all
its members.
What is a Healthy Community? (3)

36. References
 Allender, J. Rector, C & Warner,K. (2014). Community
health nursing. Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams &
Wilkins.
 Stanhope, M. & Lancaster, J. (2014). Public Health
Nursing: Population-Centered Health Care in the
Community (8th ed.). Missouri: Mosby.