Windshield Survey and Reflection
Tiffany Moore
NSG/420
5/20/2016
Jenny Abbott

A windshield survey was conducted in a low-income community of Fresno, California to retrieve a detailed assessment of a community, community health, and community as client through visual observations within the surrounding of the community. Community can be defined as a group of people, often living in a defined geographical area, who may share a common culture, values and norms, and are arranged in a social structure according to relationships which the community has developed over a period of time” (MacQueen, et al., 2010). Community health includes the characteristics that promote positive health of the population in the surrounding environment. Health goals are promoted through the nursing process from assessment through evaluation and are directly measured through statistics (Seibert, 2015). The focus of the community as a client occurs when nurses are in the forefront of direct care in the private homes of patients, not limiting to only hospital-based care (Sommer, et al., 2013). Partnerships are shared to improve the overall quality of health within the community and are determined through assessing common problems and behaviors (Seibert, 2015). According to healthy 2020 a leading health concern is the environmental quality. The environment directly affects health status and plays a major role in quality of life, years of healthy life live, and health disparities (Office of disease prevention and health promotion, 2016). This affects my family’s neighborhood because the environment is not clean and puts them at a greater risk for disease. Three possible nursing diagnosis I would give my family are: Risk for caregiver role strain, Impaired Nutrition: more than body requirements, and Impaired home maintenance. My overall impression of my family’s neighborhood is sadness. In some way I feel sorry that people especially the children have to live in conditions like those. It helped me to appreciate the little things that I usually take for granted like being able to just get in my car and go wherever I want, or my kids being able to go outside and play in the front yard and not have to worry about being shot at. While conducting my windshield survey, I paid close attention to certain things in the neighborhood. The table below shows my observation for each category: Stores and street peopleThere is one local grocery store at the corner of the neighborhood, but it is more like a liquor store that carries home items. It is accessible by foot. The closest market is about 3 miles away and is accessible car, bicycle, or city bus. There are a lot of homeless people noted in the area. Most people were observed in the early morning children catching the school bus and teens catching the city bus. Women, but hardly any men. I came to the conclusion that the neighborhood consisted of single parent families. There are 2 local elementary schools, but the high school and middle school are across town and can only be accessed by car or city bus. There were a lot of stray animals noted as well. In the mid-day and evening the streets were pretty quiet with rare activity. | Housing The homes are mainly attached to one another and look identical. It is known as project housing directly across from my family’s home. There is obvious need for home repairs. There are signs of leaks, broken windows, and gun shots. The street that my family lives on has single level homes that are detached and poorly maintained. Primary structure is made from brick and board. Some bricks on the houses were missing. | Race and ageMainly African Americans and Hispanics. There were a few Caucasians noted. The common age that was noted in the area ranged from 5 years old to mid-30’s. Many obese children and teens. | Open spaceThere are many parks and open spaces available. The parks are connected to the project housing, and the open spaces are just grass areas where mainly homeless people were seen. There is one main park that you have to pay to get in. It has an historic monument on the property. Not too many people were observed in the park during the week, I spoke with a resident about the park and they stated “It is mainly used on the weekends” (L. Jones, personal communication, May 17, 2016) | Service centers and RecreationThe WIC office and housing authority office is within walking distance. There is a boys and girls club about 5 miles from the neighborhood. I noticed that is where all the kids were after school hours and not playing in the neighborhood. They have a shuttle bus that picks up the kids from the local elementary school and drops them off in their neighborhood at 5pm. It is paid for by the city and you have to be a part of the welfare to work program in order to qualify. | Healthcare servicesTo get to the main hospital you have to get on get on the bus if you had no vehicle. It is about 23 miles from the neighborhood. No local store with a pharmacy. No clinics around the area. | ReligionI saw two small churches on the corners within the neighborhood. One was a Pentecostal church “Church of God and Christ” and the other a Hispanic church “La Iglesias Catholica” | Media I saw a lot of satellite dishes on top of the houses in the neighborhood so I assumed that was how they got cable. Most of the teens and adults carried cell phones. |

By conducting this survey, I not only got a better understanding of the meaning community, but it also opened my eyes on the different obstacles that arise in different parts of the city. I myself live in Fresno, but in a different area. This helped me to open my eyes and see a different side of nursing that I was very unfamiliar with. This experience was very enlightening.

References
Allender, J. (2014). Community and public health nursing: Promoting the public's health (8th edition). Wolters Kluwer Health Inc.
MacQueen, K., McLellan, E., Metzger, D., Kegeles, S., Strauss, R., Scotti, R., . . . Trotter, R. (2010). What is community? An evidence-based definition for public health. American Journal of Public health, 1929-1938.
Office of disease prevention and health promotion. (2016, May 17). Retrieved from Healthypeople.gov: https://www.healthypeople.gov/2020/leadinghealthindicators
Seibert, S. (2015). The meaning of a healthcare community of practice. Nursing Forum, 69-74.
Sommer, S., Johnson, J., Roberts, K., Redding, S., Chruchill, L., & Elkins, C. (2013). RN community health nursing (6th edition). ATI.