1. Key Elements of Health Assessment
2. Community Level

            In carrying out a community health assessment, health care professionals should focus on key elements that make up the community. Firstly, the demographics of the community should be put into account. This includes the approximate number of people living in the targeted community (Suris, & Akre, 2015). Assessment of the population is essential as it helps the health care to divide the resources in the community such as water sources and waste disposal points among others. Unequal distribution of the mentioned resources may affect their health. Another key element is the economic aspect of the people in the community. Understanding people’s approximate expenditure on food and other activities also helps determine if they feed on balanced diets or not. Lastly, the patterns of settlement of the people in the people in the community can also determine the state of health. For example, a community in which people live in slums can report high rates of diseases related to poor hygiene such as cholera.

1. Group Level

            Health assessment of a group is quite different since groups can be easily disintegrated. Therefore, those carrying out should take into account elements that can determine the health status of the group members. First of all, knowing the time that the group members have been together helps rule out the adopted behaviors that might affect their health (Issel, & Wells, 2017).  Also, understanding the behaviors of each member of the group is a good measure for their health. For example, a group in which some of its members smoke cigarettes can be easily affected as the non-smokers can also be influenced to start smoking. As a result, their health may be deteriorated due to continuous cigarette smoking.

1. Individual Level

At the individual level, health assessment can be done based on the elements that control their lives. To begin with, income and social status of a person should be among the key elements to observe to determine a person’s health status. An individual living a low financial status life may suffer from psychosocial stress which directly affects their normal health. Another element is the genetics of the person. Some diseases such as sickle cell anemia results due to the genetic makeup of a person and so it can be inherited. Thus, health care professionals can assess the genetic history of individual so as to rule any future genetic deformation in the individual lineage.

2. Comprehensive Health Assessment Process

            A comprehensive health assessment is usually the first step when nurses meet new patients who have come for admission or for health-related reasons. It comprises of several processes such that every process is essential. Firstly, nurses assess the cultural characteristics of the patients which include evaluation of social and cultural needs and preferences (Shooshtari et al., 2017). The assessed needs are then related to any unwanted health outcome. Among the major concerns of health care professionals in this process is to understand the social life of the patient, economic power, gender identity, and educational level among others.  Secondly, health care professionals assess the communication needs of the patient. This includes examining the patient’s specific communication requirements due to vision, hearing, or cognition issues.

Furthermore, nurses assess the family history of patients. In this case, they ask about any history of chronic illnesses in the family such as hypertension, diabetes, cancer, or substance use disorders among others. Another area of assessment is the need for advanced care planning. In this regard, nurses assess if the patient requires advanced care. The preference for advanced care should depend on the family’s opinion since there are those families that prefer their patient to be taken care of at home. However, the end of life patient always goes through advanced care after signing documents to agree on it.

More so, nurses assess behaviors in presenting patients that may be affecting their health. Such behaviors may include cigarette smoking, excessive drinking of alcohol, oral health, and risky sexual behaviors among others. The behaviors mentioned above are linked to many illnesses. For example, excessive drinking of alcohol can result in liver cirrhosis which is a deadly condition. The next process is the assessment of the patients’ mental and psychiatric history. Here, nurses assess if the patient has ever had a mental illness or if there is a family history of mental illnesses.

Also, screening for depression is done in adult and adolescent patients. A standardized tool is used to collect information which can help health care professionals to determine if the patient is suffering from depression. Since depression is common among patients suffering from chronic illnesses, it is advisable that screening is done so that it can be managed earlier before it turns into a serious mental illness.

Lastly, assessment of health literacy is also necessary for patients and even family members. Doing this is important as it helps caregivers to determine if patients and their families are aware of the diseases and their management (Ward, & Reuben, 2016). Those who lack adequate knowledge about their diseases are taught comprehensively so that they can be in a position to take care of themselves in case the diseases begin while they are away from their caregivers.

Findings of My Health Assessment

The health assessment I conducted was about determining the causes of the high prevalence of tuberculosis infection in community X. After the actual assessment, I realized that community X has a high population with an estimated number of six people per family. During the assessment, I observed that people in most of the households lived in one roof, despite the number of children that they had.  Cooking also took place under the same roof. While on the way to the community, I realized that their roads were dusty and one can swallow large amounts of dust while walking along the roads. Such observations made me conclude that people in that community were at an exposed risk of tuberculosis transmission. A whole family living in one roof shows that people in the community live in poverty. As such, they cannot manage to prevent transmission of tuberculosis through isolation.

Furthermore, I realized that the community members lacked adequate knowledge of how to prevent its spread. Those infected could not practice techniques such as appropriate coughing techniques, and this might be the cause of the fast spread of the disease. Finally, I found out that the residents had not been exposed to any healthcare agency that could help them fight with the communicable disease. They only got attention after visiting the nearest healthcare facility. This shows that much effort should be invested in fighting tuberculosis in community X to prevent it from spreading to other communities.

Reference

Issel, L. M., & Wells, R. (2017). Health program planning and evaluation. Jones & Bartlett Learning.

Shooshtari, S., Temple, B., Waldman, C., Abraham, S., Ouellette‐Kuntz, H., & Lennox, N. (2017). Stakeholders’ perspectives towards the use of the comprehensive health assessment program (CHAP) for adults with intellectual disabilities in Manitoba. Journal of Applied Research in Intellectual Disabilities, 30(4), 672-683.

Suris, J. C., & Akre, C. (2015). Key elements for, and indicators of, a successful transition: an international Delphi study. Journal of Adolescent Health, 56(6), 612-618.

Ward, K., & Reuben, D. (2016). Comprehensive geriatric assessment. UpToDate2013. http://www. update. com/contents/comprehensive-geriatric-assessment.

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